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FREEDO 

VERSUS 

SLAVERY 



IN THE 



UNITED STATES 

1619— 1865 



BY 

WILLIAM KITTLE 



CHICAGO 

R. K. ROW & COMPANY 



iJBffARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

ViM U 1906 

Ccpyfi;::!!! Entry 
CLASS CL . XXc, No 




f. 



^COPY B. 



Copyright, 1906 
William Kittle 



Kt3 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter. Page. 

I. The Colonial Period (1619-1776) 5 

II. The Revolutionary Period (1776-1789) . . . 15 

in. The Early National Period (1789-1820). . 25 

IV. The "Irrepressible Conflict" (1820-1860). 2^ 

V. The Civil War ( 1861-1865) 104 

VI. Interpretation of Current Events 125 



FREEDOM vs. SLAVERY. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
(1619-1776.) 

Two Voyages. 
In the early years of the seventeenth century, there 
took place two important voyages from England to 
America. One of the vessels was named the Treas- 
urer, and the other was the Mayflower. A period 
of only sixteen months separated their arrival in 
America. One of these ships brought slaves, while 
the other carried the Pilgrim fathers. The Treasurer 
was loaded with black men; ignorant, savage, man- 
acled, scourged by the lash, and brutalized by former 
slavery; the Mayflower brought men and women 
deeply religious; some of them were cultured, and all 
were sternly devoted to what they thought was just 
and right. 

The Treasurer. 

In April, 161 8, the Treasurer, commanded by Cap- 
tain Daniel Elfrith, left England and arrived in 
Virginia late in the summer of the same year. As 
Captain Elfrith had, from the Duke of Savoy, only a 
commission empowering him to seize the property of 
Spaniards, he was little better than a pirate, as Eng- 



6 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

land was then at peace with Spain. Gov. Argall of 
Virginia, who aided in refitting the vessel, supplied 
her with the most desperate men he could find. Cap- 
tain Elfrith then left Virginia for the Barbadoes, 
where he remained six weeks in the winter of 1 618-19. 
In the following spring, he set out on a roving voy- 
age, no record of which has been kept ; but in Septem- 
ber, 1 619, the Treasurer, in consort with the "man-of- 
war of Flushing," returned to Jamestown, Virginia, 
with a cargo of negroes, grain, wax, and tallow. This 
man-of-war was to protect the Treasurer, and its cap- 
tain, John Powell, also held from the Duke of Savoy 
a commission which empowered him to plunder the 
Spaniards. One or both of these vessels landed twenty 
negroes at Jamestown. Thus, slavery began in the 
colonies. 

The Mayflower. 

The Mayflower left Plymouth, England, Septem- 
ber 16, 1620. A steady wind bore the vessel out to 
mid-ocean, where a succession of terrible storms com- 
pelled the ship to "lie to" for several days. One of 
the main beams was broken by the force of the great 
waves. There on an open sea, a thousand miles from 
either shore, at the mercy of wind and wave and 
storm, waited and watched and prayed, one hundred 
men, women, and children. These were the Puritans 
crossing a great ocean and to a new world, for con- 
science' sake. On December 21, 1620, they landed at 
Plymouth, Massachusetts. That was the birthday of 
New England ; and the rock, on which they landed, 
which is still pointed out to travelers, will not be for- 
gotten as long as the sea continues to wash it. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 7 

Two Economic Groups. 

What had these two voyages to do with each other ? 
Everything. From them came two great movements 
hostile to each other, and extending over two and a 
half centuries of our history. The Treasurer began 
the course of slavery; the Mayflower, that of wage 
labor. From the introduction of slavery in 1619, until 
its abolition in 1865, there was not an hour when these 
hostile forces did not gather strength or meet in 
open conflict. For the first two centuries, from 1619 to 
1 81 9, both sides gathered strength for the contest. 
From 1820 to i860, the two groups met in intellectual 
and moral conflict for the possession of new territory 
and political power. But the Civil War closed this 
long conflict. By a thousand battles, four years of 
great endeavor, billions of debt, and millions of armed 
men, two hundred and forty-six years of shameful 
history were ended and four million slaves were set 
free. 

John Hawkins. 

Fifty-seven years before the voyage of the Treas- 
urer, John Hawkins, commanding three small vessels, 
the Soloman, the Swallow, and the Jonas, sailed from 
England in October, 1562. Going by way of the 
Canary Islands to Sierra Leone, where he collected 
three hundred negroes, he crossed westward to San 
Domingo, where he sold them at an enormous profit. 
He then returned to England. Two years later, when 
he made the same voyage he became the hero of the 
hour in London. In this trade with the Spanish plan- 
tations, he had boldly disobeyed the orders of the 
Spanish king, who desired that such trade should be 



8 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

held by Spaniards only. On his return, Hawkins had 
openly boasted of his exploits, and had even told De 
Silva, the ambassador of Philip king of Spain, that 
he should soon go on another voyage of the same kind. 
De Silva wrote to Philip, whose lively interest was at 
once shown by the startled exclamations, "Ojo! Ojo!" 
which he inscribed in the margin of his ambassador's 
letter. In 1567, Hawkins left England on his third 
voyage, sold his negroes in the Spanish colonies in the 
West Indies, and while skirting the coast of Cuba, was 
caught in a storm and driven to Mexico near Vera 
Cruz. Here he was betrayed by Spanish officials act- 
ing under Philip's orders, and with a few men, barely 
escaped to England. 

The Royal African Company. 

Hawkins's work was the beginning of the English 
slave trade between Africa and America. But for the 
next hundred years very few negroes were brought 
into the North American colonies. During this period, 
three African trading companies were chartered by the 
kings of England ; but the last of these surrendered its 
charter in 1672, and a new trading company, called 
the Royal African Company, was given a charter to 
trade in Africa and to send slaves to America. This 
new company had a capital of $500,000, and paid the 
old company $175,000 for its forts and warehouses in 
Africa. It had agencies in London where merchants 
of that city gave orders for slaves, just as they did for 
other merchandise. The planters in the colonies sent 
their orders for slaves to the London merchants. In 
1 71 3, Spain and England formed the Assiento, or 
treaty, by which the Royal African Company obtained 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 9 

a complete monopoly of the slave trade for thirty years. 
The Company agreed to pay the king of Spain 200,- 
000 florins and 333^ florins for each slave imported 
into Spain. The sovereigns of England and Spain 
were each to receive one-fourth of the profits of the 
Company. The Company agreed to furnish the col- 
onies 144,000 thousand slaves in the thirty years, at 
the rate of 4,800 each year, but was permitted to 
supply as many more negroes as it could sell. The 
Royal African Company as an exclusive trading body 
ceased in 1750, when Parliament threw open the slave 
trade to any merchant who would pay a fee of forty 
shillings. 

The Slave Trade. 

By means of these companies, a steady stream of 
negroes flowed into the new world. For a hundred 
years before the American Revolution, thousands of 
black men were unloaded and sold each year at the 
American ports. From 1680 to 1688, the Royal Afri- 
can Company sent 249 ships from England to Africa 
and transported 60,000 slaves to America. Nor were 
English merchants alone responsible for this trade. 
Each year saw numerous slavers leave Boston, Salem, 
Providence, and Newport, to engage in the trade. By 
the year 1700, the number of negroes taken annually 
rose to 25,000, and from 1733 to 1750 the number 
averaged more than 20,000 each year. Probably 
more than half of all these were sold to the North 
American colonies. By 1775, more than 300,000 
negroes had been sold as slaves along the coast from 
Maine to Georgia. 



10 freedom vs. slavery. 

The Middle Passage. 
When taken in connection with the capture of the 
negroes on the African coast and the horrors of the 
"Middle Passage" to America, these figures are ap- 
palling. When the slaver lay at anchor on the Afri- 
can coast, bands of armed men went to the interior, 
seized the wretched victims, bound them back to 
back, and in the morning put them, tied hand and foot, 
on board the slave ship. The "Middle Passage" was a 
long voyage from the west coast of Africa to the new 
world, and under a hot and burning sky. For more 
than three thousand miles in the torrid zone, the slave 
ship formed the worst of prisons. Sometimes as many 
as five hundred negroes were crowded on board a 
small vessel of only two hundred tons. In the morn- 
ing, all the captives were compelled to come up on 
deck to "dance" for exercise. If one refused, the fear- 
ful cat-o'-nine-tails was used. Open rebellion meant 
instant death. Those who were disorderly suffered 
the thumb-screws, or were chained by the neck and 
limbs. The daily food was salt pork and beans. At 
sunset, all were driven below and forced to lie side by 
side on the bare boards. To prevent mutiny, whole 
rows were chained together on the floor. Here, at 
night, the air grew thick and hot; diseases were com- 
municated; curses and groans and sobbings were 
heard ; and in the morning, exhausted and feverish, the 
slaves went to the deck. On a stormy voyage, it was 
still worse. At such times, all were driven below, the 
■hatches were securely fastened down, so that all ven- 
tilation ceased. When the storm was past, those who 
were alive were allowed to come forth with parched 
mouths and swollen tongues. Sometimes one-half or 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. II 

even two-thirds of all the negroes died on the "Mid- 
dle Passage;" but the average loss of life was from ten 
to fifteen out of every hundred. 

Distribution of Slaves: 1619-1775. 

Slaves were held in all of the thirteen colonies. In 
1775, from New Hampshire to Georgia inclusive, the 
whites numbered about 2,000,000 and the blacks 
500,000; but five-sixths of all the slaves were held 
south of the boundary line between Pennsylvania and 
Maryland. In the four New England colonies, there 
v^^ere not far from 25,000 slaves. In the four middle 
colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
and Delaware, the negroes numbered about 50,000. 
In the remaining five colonies, the slaves numbered 
over 425,000. In 1775, in the New England colonies, 
there were forty-two whites to one black, and in the 
four middle colonies, thirteen to one; but in the five 
southern colonies, the slaves outnumbered the whites. 

Slave Laws. 
By law in each of the thirteen colonies, the slave was 
the property of his master ; he might be bought, sold, 
leased, loaned, bequeathed by will, mortgaged and 
seized for debt, and' could neither hold nor acquire 
property. The clothes that he wore, the cabin in 
which he lived, and the wife and children who toiled 
vvith him in the fields, belonged to his master. The 
slave might be punished as the master saw fit, and if 
death resulted, the law presumed the master innocent 
on the ground that he would not intentionally destroy 
his own property. The usual legal punishments were 
starvation, crucifixion, and burning. If a slave ran 



12 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

away, he at once became an outlaw, and was hunted 
as an animal. He could not leave the plantation with- 
out a written permit, and if found without one, might 
be whipped by each person into whose hands he fell, 
until he was returned to his master. He could not 
own a gun or any weapon of defense. The law for- 
bade him to wander about at night or to assemble at 
feasts or funerals or any gatherings in parties of 
more than seven. Three facts modify our view of 
these severe laws: harsh laws were common at that 
time; the savage nature of many newly arrived slaves 
made strict restraint necessary; and the natural kind- 
ness of the owners prevented any general execution of 
the laws. 

Condition of Slaves. 

It is certain that outside of the Carolinas and Geor- 
gia the slaves were well and mildly treated. They 
had sufficient food, they were fairly well clothed, and 
not overworked or often beaten. In the northern and 
middle colonies, they were employed as house servants 
or for all kinds of menial work in the cities. In the 
southern colonies, they toiled in the fields in the cul- 
tivation of tobacco, indigo, and rice. In Connecticut 
only one or two slaves were held by one person, while 
in Maryland, one wealthy planter owned thirteen 
hundred, and one planter in Virginia, nine hundred 
slaves. The average number of slaves on each Caro- 
lina plantation was thirty. Each plantation was a 
community by itself; all the trades being represented. 
Part of the slaves were house servants; one was his 
master's coachman, another a blacksmith or a car- 
penter, and still others were field hands. The "negro 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 13 

quarter" was a collection of small, whitewashed cab- 
ins where the slaves of the plantation lived. Here 
they gathered after the day's work was over, told 
stories, sang songs, and watched their children at play. 
They were fond of music and delighted in brilliant 
colors. They were densely ignorant and superstitious. 
When night came on, they gathered in groups in the 
firelight, with their eyes rolling in terror at the stories 
of witches, ghosts, and devils. They called the 
planter's home with its large rooms and spacious hall- 
way in the center, the "great house." Around it were 
fine driveways and acres of well-kept grounds covered 
with stately oak trees which cast their deep shadows 
in the long summer of the South. 

The North and the South Contrasted. 
The North in 1776, comprised the eight colonies of 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 
necticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and 
Pennsylvania. This area of 126,860 square miles ex- 
tended westward only to the Alleghanies. The total 
population was about 1,750,000, less than one twen- 
tieth of whom were negroes. The South consisted of 
the five colonies of Maryland, Virginia, North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina, and Georgia. This slave belt of 
196,955 square miles, limited also by the Alleghanies, 
had a total population of about 750,000, more than 
one-half of whom were slaves. The North had small 
farms and numerous villages and towns; the South 
had large plantations and few towns. The North 
had a flourishing foreign commerce, while the South 
was mainly engaged in agriculture. 



14 THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 

Absence of Conflict from 1619 to 1776. 

During the colonial period, there was almost no 
contest between the sections. They were not united 
politically, and were separated by physical barriers. 
The worst of roads were common until long after the 
Revolution. The system of hand labor, used every- 
where in the colonies, even with the greater skill of 
the wage laborer, could not make the two groups com- 
petitive. Slaves were held in every northern colony; 
but the long winters, the many industries demanding 
more or less skill, and the constant immigration of 
free laborers, proved that wage-labor was actually 
cheaper and more effective than ignorant slave labor. 
This economic fact, rather than sentiments of liberty, 
caused slavery to disappear from the North. Nor 
was there any general feeling against slaveholding. 
On the contrary, many of the best families of New 
England held a few slaves or engaged in the profitable 
slave trade. The large shipping interests of New 
England which demanded employment, were not over 
scrupulous where it might be obtained. But in the 
South, with its mild climate and the simple forms of 
labor on the plantation, slave labor was, no doubt, 
cheaper. Each section worked out its own economic 
interests with no resulting conflict, until each needed 
the same political power or the same territory. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 
(1776-1789.) 

Voices of Freedom. 

In 1775, over 400,000 slaves toiled in the tobacco, 
rice, and indigo fields of the South ; but their hard lot 
had been noticed, and from time to time, sympathetic 
voices had been heard in their behalf. Though these 
voices of freedom were scattered far and wide, and 
heard only at intervals, yet they were not raised in 
vain. They were like the prelude to some great piece 
of music, whose first clear notes dying away in silence, 
break at last into full volume. 

Quakers and Methodists. 

The first recorded petition against slavery in the col- 
onies was drawn up by some Quakers of Germantown, 
Pennsylvania, in 1688.. They said it was "not lawful 
to buy or keep slaves." This was only six years after 
Philadelphia was founded. William Penn held slaves, 
but in his will made them free at his death. In 1758, 
the Society of Friends forbade any slave-buyer to sit 
in their meetings. Through the influence of the 
Quakers, thousands of slaves were set free by their 
masters. But the Friends were not the only religious 
body that spoke for freedom. In 1780, the Metho- 

16 



l6 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

dists, at their eighth conference, voted "slave-keeping 
hurtful to society and contrary to the laws of God, 
man, and nature." Five years later, the Methodist 
conferences of Virginia and North Carolina asked the 
assemblies of those States to abolish slavery. The first 
prominent abolitionist was the Rev. Samuel Hopkins 
of Rhode Island. During the Revolution, he published 
an argument for abolition in the form of a dialogue, 
and dedicated it to Congress. 

Opinions of the Fathers. 

Washington spoke and wrote against slavery. His 
most intimate friend and neighbor, George Mason, 
spoke bitterly of the system. Patrick Henry poured 
out his scorn for the wrong. Thomas Jefferson wrote, 
'T tremble for my country when I reflect that God is 
justice and that his justice cannot sleep forever." Ben- 
jamin Franklin was president of the Pennsylvania 
Abolition Society. Richard Henry Lee and Edmund 
Randolph desired freedom for all slaves. James Mad- 
ison said that the words, "slave" and "slavery" were 
not used in the national constitution because the men 
who sat in the great convention of 1787 would not 
admit that there could be property in human beings. 
Thus, everywhere and by everybody, slavery was 
looked upon as a wrong, and it was not long before 
numerous societies were formed to abolish the evil. 

Abolition Societies. 

The first abolition society was organized in Penn- 
sylvania in 1774, and Benjamin Franklin w^as elected 
its president. John Jay was president of the New York 
Abolition Society. From 1774 to 1792, such societies 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. I7 

had been formed in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia; and 
during the same period Massachusetts, New Hamp- 
shire, and Vermont had abolished slavery, and Dela- 
ware had forbidden the slave-trade. In North Caro- 
lina, there was a strong sentiment against slavery, 
especially among the Quakers. 

Economic Interests Control. 

Thus, during this period, there was a marked out- 
burst of sentiment against slavery. The Declaration 
of Independence on its face proclaimed liberty for all 
men. The most eminent men, Washington, Jefferson, 
Franklin, Patrick Henrj', Lee, and Madison spoke and 
wrote against the institution. Societies for the aboli- 
tion of slavery were formed in at least six states, Vir- 
ginia being one of them. But only three southern 
states opposed the slave trade from Africa which was 
no longer vital to the interests of the South, while 
all the great section south of Mason and Dixon's line 
kept slavery and the domestic slave trade in full vigor. 
The spirit of liberty was not allowed to interfere with 
economic interest. Nor was the North moved by sen- 
timent. Six northern states passed laws for immedi- 
ate or gradual freedom; but these registered an ac- 
complished fact rather than heralded a reform. The 
outburst of sentiment made neither the North nor the 
South oppose its own economic interest. 

Opposition to Slavery. 

Opposition to slavery showed itself most strongly 
from 1775 to 1785. During this period, South 
Carolina and Georgia gave no hope to the slave. 



1 8 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

North Carolina laid a tax of twenty-five dollars on 
each negro imported. Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, 
and New Jersey had forbidden the foreign slave trade. 
Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts, and Rhode Island had either abolished 
slavery outright, or had passed laws which gave free- 
dom to every child born after the law was passed. 
When the Revolution came, each state, except Con- 
necticut and Rhode Island, adopted a new constitution, 
and in not a single constitution, was slavery legally 
established. The words, "slave" or "slavery" were 
not even used in any one of the eleven new constitu- 
tions, except in the constitution of Delaware, where 
these words were used to abolish the slave trade. Con- 
necticut and Rhode Island did not adopt new constitu- 
tions, but they abolished both slavery and the slave 
trade. Thus, by 1785, two states had done nothing 
for the negro, one had taxed the slave trade, four had 
forbidden it, and six had passed laws for immediate 
or gradual freedom. 

The Ordinance of 1787. 

The Ordinance of 1787 was a law passed by Con- 
gress creating a government for, and forever forbid- 
ding slavery in, all the region owned by the United 
States north and west of the Ohio river. This law 
abolished slavery in what is now the states of Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Thus 
by a single law, a territory almost as large as England 
and France was set apart for freedom. 

At the close of the Revolution, three states, Vir- 
ginia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, claimed this 
vast, unknown, and forest-covered region. In 1784, 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 19 

Virginia and Massachusetts gave up all claim to it, 
and sixteen years later Connecticut surrendered to 
the United States her ''Western Reserve." Thomas 
Jefferson carried to Congress the Virginia deed of her 
claim. He urged Congress to abolish slavery, not only 
in the northwest territory, but also in the southwest 
territory, and thus give to freedom all the land from 
the mountains to the Mississippi river. He wished 
to hem in slavery by the ocean and by a strong chain 
of free states; but he lost by asking too much, and it 
was not until three years later, when he was minister 
in France, that the question again came before Con- 
gress. 

The Ohio Company. 
The Ohio Company was started mainly by the ef- 
forts of General Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper. 
Putnam had been down the Ohio river for some dis- 
tance, and had caught glimpses of that fertile soil which 
he knew in time would support millions of people. He 
went back to New England, published glowing ac- 
counts of the country, and proposed that a company 
should be formed to secure lands for the Revolutionary 
soldiers. In 1786, delegates from eight counties in 
Massachusetts met at Boston, and heard Putnam and 
Tupper describe the country and the plan of the com- 
pany. The result was the formation of the Ohio Com- 
pany. Putnam, Samuel Parsons, and Manasseh Cut- 
ler were made directors ; and Cutler was sent to New 
York City, where Congress then sat, to buy land for 
the Ohio Company. Cutler met many members of 
Congress, and offered to buy 5,000,000 acres of land 
on condition that slavery should not be allowed in the 
territory. Congress was eager to sell the land, and a 



20 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

bargain was quickly made. The result was the famous 
Ordinance of 1787. The three men who had most to 
do in securing the passage of this great law of Con- 
gress were Thomas Jefferson, Rufus King, and Wil- 
liam Grayson. On the day that it passed, eight states 
were represented in Congress by eighteen delegates, 
and seventeen voted, *'Aye." One man from New 
York voted, "No." The law declared that: "There 
shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in 
the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of 
crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly con- 
victed." 

The Convention of 1787. 
While Congress at New York City was debating 
the Ordinance of 1787, a far greater body of men at 
Philadelphia was considering the Constitution of the 
United States. This convention, consisting of dele- 
gates from twelve states, was held in Independence 
Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was 
signed. Washington was president of the convention. 
Benjamin Franklin, over eighty years of age, was 
there to give the benefit of his long and varied ex- 
perience in public affairs. Alexander Hamilton, with 
a mind more brilliant and constructive than any other 
in that great assemblage, left his law practice in New 
York to attend the convention. Madison, one of the 
most careful and thoughtful of men, was there. John 
Adams and Thomas Jefferson were absent as ambas- 
sadors in Europe. Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry 
stood aloof, critical, and suspicious. Sixty-five dele- 
gates were elected to the convention, but ten of them 
never attended. Thirty-nine signed their names to 
the Constitution. Every state except Rhode Island 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 21 

was represented. The convention held almost daily 
sessions from May 25 to September 17. When the 
Constitution was completed, it was found that it con- 
tained three important provisions relating to slavery. 

I. Fugitive Slaves. 

The first provision was the clause providing for the 
return of runaway slaves. It declared that a slave 
escaping into a free state should not gain his freedom 
by any law of the free state, but should be returned to 
his owner. This clause was put into the Constitution 
mainly through the efforts of Pierce Butler of South 
Carolina. Butler seems to have been a sharp and per- 
sistent attorney in the interest of slavery. 

First Fugitive Slave Law : 1793. 

To carry out this p^-ovision, Congress, in 1793, 
passed the first Fugitive Slave Law, which gave the 
owner the legal right to enter'a free state in pursuit of 
his slave, bind him in chains, and return him into help- 
less, hopeless bondage. This law was at once put into 
operation. Under it, a negro boy in Massachusetts 
was arrested, and Josiah Quincy defended him in 
court. Later, Quincy said he "heard a noise, and 
turning round, he saw the constable lying sprawling 
on the floor and a passage opening through the crowd 
through which the fugitive was taking his departure, 
without stopping to hear the opinion of the court." 

Kidnaping. 

This law was also used to capture the free negroes 
who then numbered thousands in North Carolina, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. A brutal 



22 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

slave driver would pretend ownership of a free negro, 
chase him with bloodhounds through swamps and 
fields, and when he was captured, sell him into slavery. 
By 1796, this kidnaping had become such a common 
occurrence that Delaware asked the government of 
the United States to stop it. The Quakers of North 
Carolina also asked Congress to protect the liberty of 
one hundred and thirty-four free negroes who had been 
kidnaped. Four negroes of North Carolina petitioned 
Congress for protection. The free negroes of Phila- 
delphia in 1799 asked Congress to stop kidnaping in 
Maryland and Pennsylvania. A violent debate sprang 
up in Congress when these petitions were read. Jack- 
son, of Georgia, said that property in slaves would be 
in danger if any extra attention was given the peti- 
tions. Congress voted to give back to the North Caro- 
lina Quakers their petition. Other petitions were not 
considered. Kidnaping continued. The Fugitive 
Slave Law stood for fifty-seven years aiid produced a 
long history of outrages. 

2. The Slave Trade. 

The second provision of the Constitution relating to 
slavery declared that Congress should not stop the 
slave-trade before 1808. All the states but South 
Carolina and Georgia wished to put into the Consti- 
tution a clause abolishing the trade at once. Charles 
Pinckney, of South Carolina, plainly told the delegates 
from the other states that his state would not agree to 
the Constitution if it prohibited the slave-trade. "No 
slave-trade, no Union," M^as the clear-cut statement 
of Rutledge and Pinckney. But with this difficulty 
arose another. The New England states wished to 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 23 

give Congress power to regulate commerce. Before 
1787, each state had control of foreign commerce, and 
there were as many sets of rules and taxes on imported 
goods as there were states. This interfered very 
greatly with trade. New England was largely inter- 
ested in this foreign trade. Her vessels plied con- 
stantly between Europe and America. Therefore, 
New England, in order to increase the amount of 
trade, wished to give Congress the power to regulate 
that trade. But the South was afraid New England 
would soon get control of all the vessels running be- 
tween Europe and America, and would raise the freight 
rates on all goods shipped either way. Here was a 
chance for a bargain between the North and the South. 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut 
agreed to allow the slave-trade to run for twenty years, 
or until 1808, if Georgia and South Carolina would 
vote to give Congress power to regulate commerce. 
The two slave states accepted, and for twenty years 
longer not a year went by that did not see hundreds of 
negroes suffer the horrors of the "Middle Passage." 

3. The Representation of Slaves. 

The third provision of the Constitution relating to 
slavery declared that each state should be represented 
in Congress according to its population, but that the 
population should be found by adding to the whole 
number of free persons three-fifths of all the slaves. 
This almost doubled the power of the South in Con- 
gress. In 1790, there were only 40,000 slaves in the 
states north of Mason and Dixon's line, while south of 
that line there were over 650,000. The total number 
of representatives in Congress was sixty-five, and out 



24 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

of this number the six southern states had thirty mem- 
bers of Congress. Thirteen of the thirty southern 
members represented slaves who were not citizens and 
who could not vote. Thus, one planter in the South* 
had nearly twice as much power in Congress as a 
farmer or merchant in the North. But this was not 
all. A very small number of wealthy and aristocratic 
families held all the political power of the South. It 
was indeed a generous and noble aristocracy. Its mem- 
bers prided themselves on their manhood, bravery, 
kindness, and hospitality. But these wealthy families 
ruled the South, and more than that, a few thousand 
of these great planters were now given as much power 
in Congress as 1,900,000 free persons at the North. 
In the free states this was felt to be unfair ; but in or- 
der to form the Union, the North was forced to agree 
to it, and for seventy years the South used with vigor 
the advantage extorted by fear. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD. 

(1789- 1 820.) 

Alleged Explanation. 

For thirty years following the convention of 1787, 
agitation of the slavery question gradually died out. 
Historians have alleged that this was due to several 
causes, i. The Constitution itself cut off all hope; 
it clearly and strongly recognized slavery as a fact. 
The rendition of fugitive slaves, the continuance of the 
slave trade, and the representation of slaves, were the 
three great conditions of Union. 2. The second bar 
to slavery agitation was the fact that the best intelli- 
gence of the country was directed to the organization 
of the new government. Laws had to be made, courts 
established, numerous departments set in operation, 
an army and a navy formed, debts paid, a revenue sys- 
tem adopted, a rebellion put down, and various other 
domestic questions had to be settled. 3. Hardly 
was the new government well under way when public 
attention was absorbed by a series of foreign questions 
which soon led to war. Public attention to this new 
danger, and to the questions to which it gave rise, al- 
lowed no room for slavery agitation. 4. The forma- 
tion of two great political parties during the first thirty 
years of the Union also prevented such agitation. 



26 



2'^ FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

Political intrig^Je and partisanship, caucus and cam- 
paign held the close attention of thousands of men be- 
sides such leaders as Jefferson and Hamilton. Thus, 
have the historians explained that the Constitution, 
the organization of the new government, foreign af- 
fairs, and the formation of parties prevented the rise 
of anti-slavery sentiment. 

Economic Explanation. 

But these four alleged "causes" do not fully explain, 
and perhaps do not explain at all, the absence of sharp 
conflict from 1789 to 1820. There was no conflict 
because the economic sections were developing west- 
ward on parallel lines. Had they crossed each other's 
path In 1805, there would have been. In proportion to 
the Interests involved, as violent an outburst, as In 
1820. Each section was taking possession of the vast 
and fertile lands westward to the Mississippi; and the 
southwest devoted to slavery, and the northwest to 
freedom, made contest impossible until expansion had 
crossed the Mississippi. 

Moreover, the balance of power was carefully main- 
tained in the national government. To keep the North 
and the South equal in the Senate, the states were ad- 
mitted in pairs: Kentucky and Vermont; Tennessee 
and Ohio; Louisiana and Indiana; Mississippi and 
Illinois. These states were not admitted together In 
point of time, but the balance of power was clearly 
recognized. 

At the close of the period, there had been so little 
discussion of the slavery question, that Thomas Jef- 
ferson said that the strife over the admission of Mis- 
souri fell on his ear, "like a fire-bell In the night." 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE 'IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT." 
(1820-1860.) 

Real Cause of the Agitation. 

From the Missouri Compromise to the Civil War, 
arose the so-called "irrepressible conflict." Was it 
a conflict of ideas, or of economic interests? Why- 
was the spirit of liberty aroused so suddenly? Were 
all the great historic voices of freedom, in the fullness 
of time, giving a trumpet call to duty? Were the 
spirit of Anglo-Saxon law and liberty, the opinions of 
the fathers and the principles of the Declaration of In- 
dependence arousing the American conscience? Did 
the rare courage of Garrison, the pathetic death of 
Lovejoy, and the eloquence of Wendell Phillips lead 
to the Civil War and emancipation? When Lincoln 
said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I 
believe this government cannot endure half slave and 
half free. I do not expect the house to fall, but I ex- 
pect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one 
thing or all the other," did he mean a conflict of ideas 
or of two solid economic groups, one of which must 
inevitably yield ? There was indeed a conflict of ideas 
but back of these ideas were the vast business interests 
of two great economic regions. The pulpit, platform, 
press, and debates in Congress merely expressed dif- 

27 



28 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

ferent phases of these real interests. Laws expressed 
the triumph of one section over the other, or a com- 
promise. The real conflict lay in the fact that two 
different industrial systems, bound together by a strong 
central government, sought to control that gov- 
ernment and the new territory won by purchase or con- 
quest. 

I. Westward Expansion: 1790- 1860. 

The westward expansion of the two sections pre- 
ceded, accompanied, and in large part explains the 
"irrepressible conflict" from 1820 to i860. 

Five important roads led to the West before 1820: 

(a) From Albany via the Mohawk valley to Buf- 
falo. After 1825, the Erie Canal was used and this 
lowered freight rates from New York City to Lake 
Erie from $120 to $19 per ton. 

(b) From Philadelphia via southern Pennsylvania 
to Pittsburg, a distance of 350 miles. 

(c) From Alexandria, Virginia, via Cumberland, 
Maryland, to the Ohio River. 

(d) From Richmond via the pass at "the upper 
Roanoke southwest to the Holston River and thence 
down the Tennessee, or northwestward through the 
Cumberland Gap to Kentucky." 

(e) "From Georgia westward there was easy 
travel to Mississippi Territory and New Orleans." 

The influence of vast areas of free land, made ac- 
cessible by these roads, cannot be overestimated. After 
the year 1800, the national government sold this land 
on a term of four years' credit at a minimum price of 
$2 per acre. Tens of thousands of emigrants were 
on all the roads going to the West from 1790 to 1820. 
In 1790, Tennessee had a population of 36,000 and 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 29 

twenty years later, 262,000. In 1800, Ohio had 45,000 
and twenty years later, 581,000. By 1820, 2,600,000 
persons were settled west of the Alleghanies, and by 
1840, 7,000,000. The westward movement of popu- 
lation crossed the Mississippi River, and to the dis- 
tant coast regions of Oregon and California and 
brought the two sections into a contest over the pos- 
session of new territory. 

2. The Factory System. 

With this vast westward expansion, was going on 
a second change which revolutionized the industries 
and interests of both sections. The factory system 
was well under way by 1820. The cotton gin was in- 
vented in 1793, and the demand for cotton caused by 
the rise of the factory system with the advantage of 
the new invention, and with the westward expansion, 
increased the cotton crop in thirty years nearly a thou- 
sand fold. The system of "land killing" and the profits 
of cotton growing made new areas necessary to the 
South. Before 1820, steam vessels appeared on the 
western rivers and the great lakes. In 1814, Francis 
Lowell set up in Massachusetts a power loom for 
spinning and weaving cotton, and the movement of 
population toward the cities began in the North. 

The Economic Conflict: 1820-1860. 

The future agitation of the slavery question might 
have been foretold in 1820. The Missouri Compromise 
was the result of a contest for land and power. Nulli- 
fication was the strong protest and threat of one sec- 
tion which was being taxed for the benefit of the other. 
Webster's splendid vision of the "gorgeous ensign of 



30 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

the republic now known and honored throughout the 
earth," had a very real background of a great ocean 
commerce, a vast territory reaching to the northwest, 
a rising factory system, and a dominant North. Abo- 
litionism, the purest form of an appeal to abstract 
liberty and held by the loftiest minds, was hated and 
despised by nine-tenths of the people. Pure sentiment 
divorced from business did not make much headway. 
The annexation of Texas was the natural result of 
westward expansion. The contest over the resulting 
Mexican Cession was for more land and power. The 
Compromise of 1850 was the balancing and settlement 
of claims. The Kansas-Nebraska law made slavery 
possible in Kansas and was the triumph of the South, 
The border warfare in that territory was an appeal to 
violence for the possession of land and power. The 
Ostend Manifesto of the same year was the threat to 
take Cuba from Spain for further slave territory and 
political power. The rise of the Republican party was 
the movement of the North to secure new lands and 
control of the government. The Dred Scott decision 
was the attempt to legalize slavery in new territory. 
The importance of the debate by Lincoln and Douglas 
in 1858, lay in the fact that power was passing to a 
new party imbued with economic consciousness, — 
with sectionalism. In the campaign of i860, both sec- 
tions claimed control of the territories and made pas- 
sionate appeals for the control of the government. 
The Civil War closed the conflict for land and politi- 
cal power. 

Definition of the Missouri Compromise. 
The Missouri Compromise was a law passed by 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 3 1 

Congress and signed by the President, prohibiting 
slavery in all the territory north of the southern boun- 
dary of Missouri and west of the Mississippi river, ex- 
cept Missouri, which was admitted as a slave state. 
About the same time Maine was admitted as a free 
state to balance the admission of Missouri as a slave 
state. For the sake of peace and union, the North 
voted to spread slavery over a vast and fertile coun- 
try, and the South voted for freedom over a yet great- 
er and richer domain. For the sake of the great re- 
public, the North voted for what it thought was a 
moral wrong, and the South gave up what it thought 
was a clear legal right. The North violated its con- 
science, and the South sacrificed the rights of a brave 
and proud people. Both sides were honest, and both 
laid their sacrifice on the altar of the Union. 

North and South Compared in 1820. 

The North and the South, in 1820, dififered in re- 
sources and in power. There were then eleven free 
and eleven slave states. Mason and Dixon's line and 
the Ohio river divided the two sections. North of this 
line there was a population of over 5,000,000 and 
south of it were over 4,500,000 persons, of whom 
1,500,000 were slaves. By the three-fifths rule, the 
slaves counted for nearly 1,000,000 and sent twenty- 
six representatives to Congress. The North sent 133 
and the South 90 representatives to the lower house 
of Congress. The two sections were equal in the Sen- 
ate, and a southern slaveholder was President. The 
North manufactured more than $4,000,000 worth of 
cotton goods, while the South manufactured less than 
$1,000,000 worth of cotton. Most of the inventions 



32 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

and machinery were produced and used at the North. 
Most of the tools and farming implements of the 
South v^ere home-made and rude. For more than a 
thousand miles, from eastern Massachusetts to western 
Illinois, farm and factory, mine and manufactory, 
made the North a hive of industry; while from east- 
ern Virginia to western Louisiana, stretched a thou- 
sand miles of tobacco and cotton plantations, worked 
by slaves and supporting a white population. 

First Debate in Congress. 

These were the two sections that squarely faced 
each other on the question of slavery in Missouri. The 
contest took place at the Capitol in Washington. At 
the outset, the South had the advantage. The Presi- 
dent and a majority of his cabinet were slave-holders. 
The Senate was strongly for the South, and most of 
the ablest men of the nation — ^Jefferson, Madison, 
Clay, and Calhoun — were in favor of slavery in Mis- 
souri. 

The bill to admit Missouri came before Congress in 
February, 1819. Mr. Tallmadge, of New York, 
moved that no more slaves be allowed to enter Mis- 
souri, and that all slaves in that Territory should be 
free at the age of twenty-five years. This was the 
famous -^"Tallmadge Amendment." It passed the 
House, but the Senate voted against it. Mr. Scott of 
Missouri, said that the Tallmadge Amendment was 
"big with the fate of Caesar and of Rome." Mr. Cobb 
of Georgia said that if the North persisted in that 
amendment the Union would be dissolved; and that 
they "were kindling a fire which all the waters of the 
ocean could not extinguish. It could be extinguished 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 33 

only in blood." Tallmadge replied : "If a dissolution 
of the Union must take place, let it be so! If a civil 
war, which gentlemen so much threaten, must come, 
I can only say, let it come." 

Public Discussion. 

During the summer of 1819, Congress adjourned, 
and the Missouri question was taken before the peo- 
ple. Great excitement prevailed. Large public meet- 
ings were held in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, 
Trenton, and Baltimore, and sent strong protests to 
Congress against allowing slavery in Missouri. Dan- 
iel Webster wrote a noble protest against extending 
slavery. The legislatures of six northern states pro- 
tested against extending slavery in the Territories. 
The newspapers made the North a unit on the ques- 
tion. Nor was the South less united. Jefferson said 
that the strife fell on his ear, "like a fire-bell in the 
night" ; but, he also said, that, "The question is a mere 
party trick" to give the Federalists control of the 
North. The Federalist party, being unpopular for 
having opposed the War of 181 2, and needing a new 
and popular political war cry, chose the battle cry of 
freedom. The South believed it was a party trick and 
not the sincere sentiment of the North towards slav- 
ery. The truth is that party politics did influence the 
northern politicians, but beneath this surface fact lay 
the innate and deep-seated antagonism of the two 
economic sections, each of which now demanded ex- 
tension and further political power. 

Second Debate in the House. 
In the winter of 1819-20, the question again came 



34 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

before Congress. During this session the House sat 
in what is now Statuary Hall. Between the lofty col- 
umns, hung crimson curtains. Over the Speaker's 
chair, was a canopy of crimson silk. Chairs and desks 
were arranged to seat one hundred and eighty-seven 
members of the House. Here, for months, northern 
members spoke for freedom; and southern planters 
urged the rights of property under the Constitution. 
Both sides brought great determination and ability to 
the contest. During the debate, Mr. Ruggles of Ohio, 
said, "The people of Missouri fifty years hence will 
trace, not to a British king, not to a corrupt British 
Parliament, but to Congress, the evils of slavery." 
Mr. Cook of Illinois, said, "Unless she comes in the 
white robes of freedom and a pledge against the fur- 
ther evils of slavery, with my consent, she will not be 
admitted." John Tyler replied, "Rail at slavery as 
much as you please, I point you to the Constitution 
and say to you that have not only acknowledged our 
right to this species of property; but you have gone 
much further, and have bound yourselves to rivet the 
chains of the slave." Clay's clarion voice rang out 
for slavery, and once he whispered to a member that 
within five years the Union would break up into three 
confederacies — North, South, and West. 

One day, when the House was in session, the clank- 
ing of chains and the crack of a whip were heard out- 
side; and several members ran to the window and saw 
a villainous looking slave driver with a gang of fif- 
teen negroes going west on Capitol hill. The slaves 
were handcuffed and chained to each other, and the 
women and children were placed at the rear of the pro- 
cession. At another time, a black face in the gallery 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 35 

alarmed the southern members, and debate was 
stopped till the listening negro was removed. 

Second Debate in the Senate. 

But the great debate took place just across the ro- 
tunda of the Capitol in the Senate chamber. There, 
Rufus King of New York, made the best and strong- 
est speech for the North. For forty years, he had held 
high positions in the government. He had been minis- 
ter to England, had declined Washington's invitation 
to be Secretary of State, had sat in the great conven- 
tion of 1787, and now represented the Empire State 
in the Senate. His manner was courtly and dignified, 
his language exact and pure. John Quincy Adams, 
who heard him, said that during his speech the great 
slave-holders gnawed their lips and clenched their 
fists. The South put forward their greatest orator in 
the person of William Pinkney of Maryland. He, 
too, had held the highest public offices. He had been 
attorney-general of Maryland, representative in the 
lower house of Congress, attorney-general of the 
United States, minister to several European countries, 
and was perhaps the ablest lawyer of the United 
States. He loved the law, and his one ambition was 
to be the finest of orators. He answered Rufus King. 
On the day that he spoke, members of the cabinet 
came to the Senate. The House of Representatives 
went to hear him. Foreign diplomats crowded to 
hear the orator who was said to rival the great Burke 
in wealth of imagery and eloquence. More than a 
hundred ladies were on the floor of the Senate. He 
appeared in faultless dress, wearing tinted gloves and 
elaborate ruffles, as the style then ran. His speech had 



36 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

long been prepared, but it appeared to spring full 
armed from his brain as he stood the center and de- 
light of that great assemblage. His gorgeous display 
of eloquence more than satisfied his brilliant audience. 

The First Compromise. 

The South controlled the Senate, and the North, the 
House. Neither would yield in full to the other; and 
so Jesse B. Thomas, a senator from Illinois, proposed 
the compromise line of 36° 30'. He, and not Clay, 
was the real author of the Missouri Compromise of 
1820. North of the compromise line, slavery, except 
in Missouri, was not allowed. South of that line, 
slavery was permitted. 

The Second Compromise. 

The long contest over Missouri seemed ended. 
Maine was at once admitted into the Union, and Mis- 
souri was directed to form a constitution. The peo- 
ple of Missouri, angry at the long delay, adopted a 
constitution which forever forbade her legislature to 
interfere with slavery and which prohibited free ne- 
groes from entering the state. The North broke forth 
in wrath at such a constitution, and vowed never to 
admit such a state into the Union. The South accused 
the North of bad faith in securing the admission of 
Maine, and then keeping Missouri out. There were 
loud threats of disunion, but Clay brought forward a 
second compromise which provided that Missouri 
should be admitted on condition that it would never 
enforce the constitution concerning free negroes. 
Missouri accepted, and was admitted as a slave state 
in 1821. 



the irrepressible conflict. 2)7 

Nullification in the South. 

For ten years after the Missouri Compromise, the 
behef spread rapidly in the South that the duties on 
imported goods benefited the North and injured the 
South. The slave states, manufacturing very little, 
were yet compelled to pay heavy taxes on all imported 
articles. Slave labor produced immense quantities of 
cotton, tobacco, and rice, and the undoubted interest 
of the South was a free trade with Europe. South 
Carolina well represented that interest. From that 
state alone, was sent more than one-fourth of all the 
exports from southern fields. In 1832, South Caro- 
lina passed an Ordinance of Nullification which de- 
clared the tariff laws "null, void, and no law, not bind-, 
ing upon this State, its of^cers or citizens." 

The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. 

Nullification was not a new idea in 1832. One day, 
in the autumn of 1798, Thomas Jefiferson, William 
Nicholas, and George Nicholas were talking about the 
famous Alien and Sedition laws lately passed by Con- 
gress. Jefferson wished Virginia and Kentucky to 
join in a strong protest against the objectionable laws. 
He got from the two brothers a solemn pledge of se- 
crecy and then wrote the "Resolutions of '98." 
George Nicholas presented them to the legislature of 
Kentucky. Jefferson sent a copy of them to Madison, 
who then sat in the legislature of Virginia. Both 
states adopted the "Resolutions," which declared that 
the Alien and Sedition laws were "not law, . . . 
void, and of no effect," and that the Constitution was 
a compact. The main purpose of the Resolutions was 
to make a united and vigorous appeal to public opin- 



38 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

ion against bad laws. Nullification in 1798 meant at 
once a protest and an appeal, and not secession. Jef- 
ferson and his friends had no thought of disunion. 
The governors of Kentucky and Virginia sent copies 
of the Resolutions to the various states. The five 
New England states with New Jersey and Delaware 
sent back a prompt and strong dissent from nullifica- 
tion. Virginia built a new armory, laid new war taxes 
and drilled her militia; but, as not a single state had 
returned a favorable answer, Kentucky and Virginia, 
in 1799, saw fit to declare that disunion was not 
meant, but that only a protest had been made, and that 
love of the Union was strong in the two states. 

Disunion in New England. 

The feeling of disunion next appeared in New Eng- 
land itself. For months in 1804, the political leaders 
there plotted for disunion. Four causes led to this: 
The government of the United States had bought 
Louisiana; had reduced the army to a handful; had 
almost ruined the navy ; and New England was nearly 
powerless in public affairs. Massachusetts complained 
that the South had 850,000 slaves, represented by fif- 
teen votes in Congress; and that if new states from 
the Louisiana Territory were admitted, the South 
would surely control the Union. Timothy Pickering, 
Aaron Burr, and other leaders advocated a new Union 
of the free states with New Brunswick and with Nova 
Scotia. But the people would not support their lead- 
ers, and the plan of disunion failed. 

Disunion in the Mississippi Valley. 
Lack of attachment to the Union next showed itself 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 39 

west of the mountains. In 1804, after his duel with 
Hamilton, Burr fled to Philadelphia, where he pro- 
posed to the British minister to break up the Union, 
if England would furnish money and arms to the 
Western men. From Philadelphia, he went by way 
of the ocean to Georgia, thence across the state to 
South Carolina, and back to Washington. Here Gen- 
eral Wilkinson introduced him to many leading men 
from Kentucky and Louisiana. About this time, the 
plan to break up the Union was told to the French 
minister; and shortly afterwards Burr went west to 
Pittsburg, down the Ohio to Blennerhasset's beautiful 
island home, and then southwest through the leading 
towns of Kentucky and Tennessee to New Orleans. 
Burr talked with Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and 
many prominent men and reported that the West was 
ready for separation; but when President Jefferson 
sent swift officers over the mountains to arrest him, 
and had him tried for treason, the entire plan of a 
Mississippi valley republic was dropped. 

The Hartford Convention. 

Nullification next appeared in New England in 
1814. The people of that section had for years been 
dissatisfied with the general government, and for two 
years had sternly opposed the war with England. The 
Massachusetts legislature called the Constitution a 
compact, declared for nullification, and voted to raise 
$1,000,000 for a state army of 10,000 men. Dele- 
gates from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Con- 
necticut met in convention at Hartford, and, after a 
session of three weeks, voted that the national govern- 
ment should not be permitted to retain the tariff duties 



40 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

collected in New England. Behind this demand was 
the distinct intention to break up the Union. To give 
way to this demand was to bankrupt the government, 
and to refuse was to bring certain disunion. Fortu- 
nately the brilliant victory won by General Jackson at 
New Orleans and the close of the war gave the people 
new confidence in the Union; and the sentiment of 
secession not only rapidly disappeared, but became a 
reproach and a byword to those who had held it. 

Nullification in South Carolina. 

As has already been said, the last, and by far the 
greatest attempt at nullification was made by South 
Carolina in 1832. Several facts led to this bold at- 
tack on the Union. In 1824, the North and West 
combined to pass a tariff law which was strongly op- 
posed by the entire South. Webster himself opposed 
it, and John Randolph threatened resistance by force. 
Three years later, Robert Turnbull of South Carolina, 
published thirty-one essays on the "Crisis" ; and advo- 
cated secession if justice should not be done to the 
South with respect to the tariff laws and to slavery. 
He preceded Calhoun as an advocate of nullification 
in South Carolina. In 1828, Congress passed a law 
still more offensive to the South, called the "Tariff 
of Abominations." Five states at once protested 
against the law. A large mass meeting in South Car- 
olina resolved against any further trade with the West 
and the North. Turnbull now actively urged nullifi- 
cation, and the new doctrine grew in favor at the 
South. 

The Webster-Hayne Debate. 

The "great debate" between the North and the 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 4I 

South on the question of nulHfication took place in the 
Senate chamber at Washington in 1830. On that 
memorable twenty-sixth of January, every part of the 
room was densely crowded with senators, various pub- 
lic officers, and visitors. Many members of the House 
were present. John C. Calhoun was president of the 
Senate. Several southern men were grouped together 
for mutual support. A number of Massachusetts men 
stood in one part of the chamber, confident in the pa- 
triotism and power of their great senator. Webster 
spoke for the North; Hayne of South Carolina, for 
the South. Hayne was a man of fine and lofty char- 
acter, courteous, frank, and sincere. He ranked high 
as a lawyer and an orator. Webster's very look ex- 
pressed force and power. His abundant black hair, 
the superb, crag-like brow, the dark, piercing, deep- 
set eyes, and the firm lines of the massive face, marked 
him as a great antagonist. Hayne, with clear state- 
ment and persuasive oratory, had said that a state 
could nullify a law of Congress; and that the Consti- 
tution was nothing but a compact, or a contract. Web- 
ster denied the power of peaceable nullification; and 
asserted that the Constitution was a great charter of 
government, "made for the people, made by the peo- 
ple, and answerable to the people." He showed that 
nullification would make the Union, "the servant of 
four-and-twenty masters, of different wills and differ- 
ent purposes, and yet bound to obey all." His speech 
was a great plea for the power and continuance of the 
Union. He took the vague and unformed sentiment 
of nationality and breathed into it the breath of life. 
His speech was "like an amendment to the Constitu- 
tion." 



42 freedom vs. slavery. 

The Fourth of July, 1831, in Charleston. 

But the "nullifiers" were not dismayed. Shortly 
after the debate in the Senate, they planned to win 
President Jackson to their side. He was invited to a 
banquet in memory of Jefferson and was asked to 
deliver an address. He astonished the "nullifiers" by 
the toast which he gave — "The Federal Union, it must 
be preserved," — and he spoke strongly for the Union. 
On July 4, 1 83 1, the States Rights party held a great 
celebration in Charleston, South Carolina. A huge 
building in the form of a pentagon, and seating 12,000 
people, had been erected for the occasion. Festoons 
of flowers and evergreens decorated the interior, and 
without were planted pine, hickory, and palmetto trees. 
The ladies of the city also gave a beautiful banner. 
Hayne delivered the oration. In the same city and on 
the same day, a Union meeting was held. Several 
thousand persons, with waving banners and bands of 
music, marched in procession to a church, where 
speeches for the Union were made, and where Wash- 
ington's Farewell Address was read. President Jack- 
son sent down a special letter which expressed his love 
for the Union. Dinner was served in a great building 
fifty feet wide and one hundred and fifty feet long. 
Festoons of flowers and evergreens within, and trees 
without, also adorned the structure. Three full- 
rigged vessels were placed over the front of the build- 
ing. Above the archway, were the words, "Don't give 
up the ship." 

Nullification and Compromise. 

In November, 1832, 162 delegates met in convention, 
in South Carolina, and declared certain tariff laws, 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 43 

"null, void, and no law." The state armed and drilled 
20,000 men, and built arsenals and depots for supplies. 
In December of the same year. President Jackson is- 
sued a proclamation to the rebellious state in which he 
denied the power of nullification, and warned South 
Carolina to yield. Hayne, who was now governor of 
that state, issued a proclamation defying the Presi- 
dent. Calhoun took Hayne's place in the Senate of the 
United States to defend nullification. The President 
now asked Congress for extra power to enforce the 
tariff laws. This was granted by the "Force Bill," 
which became a law in March, 1833. In the mean- 
time, Henry Clay proposed and secured the passage 
of a new tariff law which was acceptable to the South. 
In view of the firm stand of the President, and of the 
compromise by Clay, South Carolina yielded, and re- 
pealed her ordinance of nullification. 

Net Result. 

The general result of the whole controversy was a 
victory for the Union. As a protest against unpopu- 
lar laws, nullification had succeeded; as a principle, it 
had failed. It never afterwards was used even as a 
form of protest; but the doctrines behind it — that the 
Constitution is a compact and that each state is sover- 
eign — spread throughout the entire South ..until the 
opening of the Civil War. 

Nat Turner. 
In 1 83 1, a band of negroes in Virginia, under the 
lead of Nat Turner, a negro slave about thirty-one 
years old, rose against their masters, murdered fifty- 
five persons and became the terror of the whole State. 



44 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

In 1830. his master hired him out to a wealthy planter, 
but he soon ran away. He had early learned to read 
and write, and also became deeply religious. On one 
occasion he had a vivid vision of a great combat be- 
tween white spirits and black spirits far up in the sky. 
He thought himself a prophet and believed God had 
given him a mission to free the negroes. He avoided a 
crowd, was dreamy, and never laughed. 

An eclipse in 1831, seemed to Turner a visible sign 
from heaven to fulfill his mission. He held a secret 
meeting with five other negroes, and they agreed to 
spare neither age nor sex. The band which soon num- 
bered over sixty, made a raid of about twenty miles 
through Southampton county, and murdered fifty-five 
white persons. Companies of white men quickly 
formed and the whole southeastern part of Virginia 
was in arms. A reward of $1,100 was offered for 
Turner's capture. For six weeks he lay hid under a 
pile of rails, but was at last caught. He and twelve 
other negroes were tried, convicted, and hanged. This 
murderous raid sent a thrill of terror into every south- 
ern home. Numerous plots in other parts of the South 
were also reported, and every planter felt that south- 
ern society rested on a volcano. Virginia passed se- 
vere laws against the negroes, forbade their meetings 
and ordered the arrest of their preachers. 

The South Aroused. 

This terrible fear explains, in part, why the South 
so bitterly opposed all the efforts of the northern aboli- 
tionists. In 1835, President Jackson asked Congress 
to close the mails to all papers, pamphlets, and books 
which might lead to slave insurrection. John C. Cal- 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 45 

houn introduced such a bill in the Senate, where it was 
lost by only six votes. The mail bags were broken 
open in South Carolina, and a bonfire was made of the 
abolition documents. Petitions to Congress on the 
subject of slavery met with violent opposition. Ex- 
President John Quincy Adams presented to the House 
hundreds of petitions against slavery. One day, he 
presented 511, representing 300,000 persons at the 
North. The whole House was in an uproar. Cries 
of, "Censure him!" "Expel him!" arose. After three 
days of passionate debate and violent abuse, Adams 
got the floor and made a great speech for the right of 
petition. But the House adopted the "Atherton gag 
rule," which provided that all petitions be laid on the 
table, "without being debated, printed, or referred." 
This rule held from 1836 to 1844. 

Benjamin Lundy. 
The first leading abolitionist was Benjamin Lundy. 
From 1820 to 1830, he traveled over 25,000 miles, 
5,000 miles afoot, gave hundreds of addresses, and 
visited nineteen states, Canada, Hayti, Texas, and 
Mexico. He organized many abolition societies, and 
published a paper called, " The Genius of Universal 
Emancipation." By his efforts, the first national aboli- 
tion convention was held at Baltimore, in 1826. He 
died in 1839, after having given nearly his whole life 
to free the slaves. 

Garrison and the Liberator. 
Of all the abolitionists, none stands out more clearly 
than William Lloyd Garrison. In 1830, he was tried 
and convicted in Baltimore for publishing an article ori \ftr^'t 
slavery. He was setenced to pay a fine of $50, and not 



46 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY, 

being able to do so, was lodged in jail for seven weeks. 
While in prison, he wrote a fierce letter against slav- 
ery. After leaving Baltimore, he gave several lec- 
tures on his way from Philadelphia to Boston. At 
that city, on January i, 1831, he issued the Liberator, 
a very remarkable paper. On its front page was the 
picture of an auction where "slaves, horses and other 
cattle" were offered for sale; and near this was seen 
a whipping post at which a slave was being flogged. 
In the background, was the Capitol at Washington 
with the flag unfurled above the dome. In the first 
issue of the Liberator, Garrison wrote : "I will be 
as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. 
. . . I am in earnest. I will not equivocate^ — I will 
not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will 
be heard." In 1835, at a meeting held by some aboli- 
tionists in Boston, a mob seized him, put a rope around 
his body, dragged him through the streets, and would 
have taken his life had not the mayor rescued him, 
and placed him in jail for protection. When Presi- 
dent Tyler visited Boston, Garrison published two ad- 
dresses. In one, he asked the President to free his 
slaves; in the other, he addressed the slaves of the 
South as follows: "If you come to us and are hun- 
gry, we will feed you; if thirsty, we will give you 
drink; if naked, we will clothe you; if sick, we will 
administer to your necessities; if in prison, we will 
visit you ; if you will need a hiding place from the face 
of the pursuer, we will provide one that even blood- 
hounds will not search out." 

The Liberator had a small circulation, but it roused 
the wrath of every southern planter. South Carolina 
offered a reward of $1,500 to convict any person 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 47 

found circulating the Liberator in that state. Nor 
was this paper without effect at the North. Nine 
years after the first issue, there were 2,000 abolition 
societies with 200,000 members enrolled. 

Murder of Love joy. 

While Garrison was stirring the South to its center, 
Elijah P. Lovejoy, at Alton, Illinois, paid with his life 
his devotion to the cause of abolition. Lovejoy was 
born in Maine, and was graduated from a small col- 
lege in that state. In 1826, he went to St. Louis, Mis- 
souri, as a teacher, but soon became the editor of a 
religious paper. Later, he removed to Alton, Illinois. 
While he was here a case in the courts stirred his in- 
dignation. A negro had aided two quarreling sailors 
to escape from an officer. For this, the negro was 
arrested ; and on being told that his punishment would 
be five years in prison, he broke away from the officers, 
and stabbed one of them fatally. He was recaptured, 
but was taken from the jail by a mob and slowly 
burned to death at the stake. For twenty minutes, the 
flames coiled and hissed about him, and he died after 
the most frightful agony. Judge Lawless told the 
grand jury to do nothing with the murderers. Love- 
joy in his paper commented severely on the heartless 
judge. A public meeting was soon called to stop the 
further issues of Lovejoy's paper. To the surprise of 
the crowd, Lovejoy appeared at the meeting. He told 
them that his conscience would not let him stop in his 
course, and that he spoke only for truth and justice. 
His speech made a great impression, but it was not 
lasting. 

About this time, he ordered a new printing press, 



48 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

which reached Alton in the morning- of November 7, 
1837. The mob blew horns to notify all that it had 
come. At ten o'clock in the evening-, about thirty men 
came out of a saloon, went to the printing office and 
demanded the press. Lovejoy, with seven others with- 
in the building, refused. The mob then threw stones 
through the windows, and both sides fired shots. Soon 
was heard the cry, "Burn them out !" and a ladder was 
brought for that purpose. Lovejoy, just as he was 
coming out of the building, was at once shot and 
killed. The mob then broke the press in pieces, and 
threw the type and fragments into the Mississippi 
river. The next day, the body of Lovejoy was borne 
home with scoffing to his wife and children. He lies 
buried on a bluff overlooking the great river. 

Wendell Phillips. 

News of this tragedy soon traveled over the North. 
W. E. Channing, the noted minister of Boston, to- 
gether with one hundred other citizens, called a meet- 
ing at Faneuil Hall, on December 8, 1837. A great 
audience was present. James T. Austin, the attorney- 
general of Massachusetts, spoke and said that Love- 
joy "died as the food dieth." Wendell Phillips sat in 
that audience. He was unknown, but he quickly 
stepped to the platform, and with flashing eye and in- 
tense force he said of Austin, "for the sentiments he 
has uttered, on soil consecrated by the prayers of the 
Puritans and the blood of patriots, the earth should 
have yawned and swallowed him up." He then fol- 
lowed with a speech which placed him at once in the 
front rank of American orators. 



the irrepressible conflict. 49 

The Abolitionists. 

The abolitionists were very active all through the 
North from 1830 to 1840. Thousands of speeches 
were made, and millions of documents sent through 
the mails for the cause of abolition. Lowell and Whit- 
ticr wrote poems for the new cause. Emerson said the 
abolitionists, "might be wrong-headed, but they were 
wrong-headed in the right direction." But active as 
they were, they formed only a small part of the popu- 
lation. Not one man in ten was an abolitionist. At 
first, they were hated and despised. Nearly all classes 
of society were against them. They were regarded as 
fanatics and disturbers of the peace. Churches and 
halls were refused them. Mobs broke in on their meet- 
ings and stoned their speakers. But, gradually, the 
tide turned. The high character and purpose of the 
abolitionists compelled a respectful hearing, and with 
this hearing thousands of new abolitionists sprang up. 

The Liberty Party: 1840-1843. 

Out of all this agitation by the abolitionists, arose a 
new political party. In 1840, the anti-slavery men 
held a national convention in New York to form the 
Liberty Party. Delegates were present from all the 
New England states, together with New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. The con- 
vention voted to nominate a President and Vice-Presi- 
dent, and urged all members to vote for township, 
county, and state officers who were pledged against 
slavery. The new party cast only 6,784 votes for 
James G. Birney, in 1840. But there were in fact 
70,000 abolitionists then in the North. Nine-tenths of 
these did not vote for their party on account of dis- 



50 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

agreement as to the methods and principles. During 
the next three years, the various factions in the Liberty 
Party settled their differences, and in 1843, ^ thousand 
delegates, representing every free state, except New 
Hampshire, met in convention at Buffalo, New York, 
and nominated James G. Birney for President. He 
received over 62,000 votes. In no state did the aboli- 
tionists number more than one-tenth of the voters. 
But the noteworthy fact of the campaign of 1844 was 
that the Liberty Party threw the election into the hands 
of the Democrats, who had openly declared for more 
slave territory. This result was brought about in the 
state of New York, where Polk had received only 
5,000 more votes than Clay. In that state, the Liberty 
Party had received 15,000 votes and these were drawn 
largely from the Whig Party. This result brought 
forth a storm of indignation from the Whigs, and the 
Liberty Party soon disbanded. 

The Independence of Texas. 

In 1 82 1, the Spanish colonists of Mexico separated 
their country from Spain, and three years later set up 
a republican form of government. Texas was one of 
the states of Mexico; and had a mixed and scattered 
population of Spaniards, Indians and Americans. In 
1830, the President of Mexico issued his decree that 
further immigration from the LTnited States should 
stop, that convicts from the prisons of Mexico should 
be settled in Texas, and that heavy taxes should be 
paid to the Mexican government. With scarcely 2,000 
able-bodied men, Texas at once revolted, and in 1833, 
adopted a constitution of its own. Three years later, 
Mexico tried to set aside the Texan self-government j 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 5I 

but the people again rebelled and declared their inde- 
pendence on March 2, 1836. The next year the 
United States, France, England, and Belgium recog- 
nized the new republic of Texas. In 1836, the total 
population of Texas was only 100,000, and but 3,370 
votes were cast that year for officers of the govern- 
ment. The army had but 2,200 men, and the navy 
consisted of four vessels carrying twenty-nine can- 
nons. The money was nearly worthless, there were 
no roads, no post-of^ces, no jails, no courts. 

Sam Houston. 

But with all these disadvantages, the bold Texan 
rangers were more than a match for the Mexican sol- 
diers sent against them. Under the brilliant leadership 
of Sam Houston, their independence was maintained 
for years. General Sam Houston was a man after Jack- 
son's own heart. He was born in Virginia, but re- 
moved to Tennessee. Before he was thirty-five, he 
was a representative in Congress, and governor of the 
state. On account of domestic trouble, he resigned 
the governorship, fled to the Indians, adopted their 
habits, became a chief, and roamed for three years 
with them on the western plains. He joined the Tex- 
ans in their struggle for independence, became their 
general, was elected President of the new republic, 
and when Texas sought admission to the United 
States, he appeared in the Capitol at Washington, 
bearing in his hand the gift of his great state. 

No "Plot" to Annex Texas. 
Texas had no wish to be a free and independent na- 
tion. Bands of settlers from Louisiana and Missis- 



52 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

sippi had gone into Texas, and the sentiment was 
strongly in favor of admission into the Union. The 
plan to annex Texas was the logical result of west- 
ward expansion. No proof exists of any "plot" to 
bring Texas into the Union. A Texas envoy had 
urged President Van Buren to declare for annexation ; 
but fearing opposition, the President refused. Soon 
afterwards, the Senate voted against annexation. In 
1837, Webster voiced the opinion at the North in op- 
position to the admission of Texas. 

In the summer of 1843, the plan for annexation was 
in full progress. President Tyler was *m favor of the 
plan. Andrew Jackson used his wide influence for it. 
The legislatures of Tennessee, Alabama, and Missis- 
sippi declared for annexation. In March, 1844, John 
C. Calhoun was made Secretary of State; and by his 
management the plan moved forward by leaps and 
bounds. In April, he promised the army and navy of 
the United States to aid Texas against Mexico. In 
the same month, he sent a treaty of annexation to the 
Senate, which voted against the admission of Texas. 
The question was at once thrown into the presidential 
campaign of 1844. 

The Whig Party in 1844. 

The Whig national convention met at Baltimore on 
May I. Thousands were present, and Henry Clay 
was nominated for President by acclamation. In 
April, he had written a letter against annexation. As 
the campaign went on, he became alarmed. He was 
surrounded by southern men who wished more slave 
territory. In August, he wrote his famous "Ala- 
bama" letter, in which he stated that he wished to an- 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 53 

nex Texas "upon just and fair terms," and that "the 
subject of slavery ought not to affect the question one 
way or the other." This offended the Northern 
Whigs, and defeated him. That letter drove enough 
Whigs into the Liberty Party in New York to carry 
the state for the Democratic Party ; and on New York 
hinged the election for President. 

The Democratic Party in 1844. 

The Democratic national convention met at Balti- 
more on May 27. It boldly declared for "the re-an- 
nexation of Texas at the earliest practicable period" ; 
and Polk was nominated for President. After the 
election, the Democrats claimed that the people had 
declared for annexation, and Congress, at its next ses- 
sion in December, 1845, admitted Texas as a state. 

Cause of the War With Mexico. 

A boundary line between Texas and Mexico was at 
once the subject of dispute. The United States claimed 
all the land to the Rio Grande, and Mexico held that 
the Neuces river was the rightful boundary. Texas 
had, indeed, claimed this strip, but the claim was only 
asserted and never established. Garret Davis, of Ken- 
tucky, said in the House at Washington, in 1846, that 
"No Texan magistrate was ever seen, no Texan law 
was ever obeyed, no Texan jurisdiction was ever as- 
serted, no Texan rule in any form, in this extent of 
territory, was known. All was Mexican from the be- 
ginning." President Polk ordered 4,000 troops into 
the disputed territory. A Mexican army crossed the 
Rio Grande, and demanded the withdrawal of the 
American troops. In April, 1846, sixty-three dra- 



54 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

goons of the United States army were attacked by a 
larger force of Mexican troops, and seventeen Ameri- 
cans were killed and wounded and the others forced to 
surrender. Swift messengers carried the news to 
Washington; and on May ii, 1846, President Polk 
sent to Congress a message in which he stated, "Mex- 
ico has passed the boundary of the United States.- 
. . . and shed American blood upon American 
soil. War exists, and exists by the act of Mexico 
herself." Two days later Congress passed a law giv- 
ing the President complete power to call out, arm, or- 
ganize and equip 50,000 men. The law declared that 
"war existed by the act of Mexico." 

The Mexican War. 
For the next two years the armies of the United 
States passed rapidly from one brilliant victory to an- 
other, and at last stood conquerors in the City of Mex- 
ico itself. President Polk proclaimed peace on July 
4, 1848. The war had lasted two years, had cost 
$130,000,000, and had added a vast domain to the 
Union. It had been denounced in the North and 
East, but was popular in the South and West. "The 
glory of the war was the glory of the South," and that 
section fully believed that a great empire had been 
added to the area of slavery. In 1845, Macaulay, in 
Parliament, said of the United States, "That nation 
is the champion and upholder of slavery. They seek 
to extend slavery with more energy than was ever 
exerted by any other nation to diffuse civilization." 

The Result. 
With an army in the Mexican capital, the United 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 55 

States compelled that nation to give up 900,000 square 
miles of its territory. Every foot of that great area 
was free from slavery. The Mexicans anxiously asked 
that the treaty should forbid slavery in the ceded ter- 
ritory. The representative of the United States told 
them that if the land, "were increased ten-fold in 
value, and, in addition to that, covered a foot thick 
with pure gold, on the single condition that slavery 
should be forever excluded," he would not, "entertain 
the offer for a moment, nor even think of sending it to 
His government. No American President would dare 
to submit such a treaty to the Senate." 

The Wilmot Proviso. 

The war had not been in progress three months 
when both North and South clearly saw that territory 
would be taken from Mexico. A few men at the 
North resolutely determined that not a foot of that 
territory should be given to slavery. In August, 1846, 
when Congress was considering a bill to put $2,000,- 
000 into the President's hands to secure more land 
from Mexico, David Wilmot moved a proviso to the 
bill, making it "an express and fundamental condition 
to the acquisition of any territory from Mexico, that 
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever 
exist therein." 

The Result. 
"His amendment made his name familiar at once 
throughout the length and breadth of the Republic. 
No question had arisen since the slavery agitation of 
1820 that was so elaborately debated. The Wilmot 
Proviso absorbed the attention of Congress for a long- 



S6 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

er time than the Missouri Compromise; it produced a 
wider and deeper excitement in the country, and it 
threatened a more serious danger to the peace and in- 
tegrity of the Union." The Wilmot Proviso did not 
become a law, but it raised up a powerful anti-slavery 
party in the North. 

The Democratic Party in 1848. 

The Democrats and Whigs were the two great po^ 
litical parties in the election of 1848. The Democratic 
national convention met at Baltimore, on May 22. 
New York sent two opposing delegations — called the 
Hunkers and the Barnburners. The Barnburners 
were pledged for the Wilmot Proviso. When the 
convention voted to admit both delegations, and so 
offend neither, both withdrew. Lewis Cass, of Michi- 
gan, was then nominated for President on a platform 
which carefully avoided the slavery question. 

The Whig Party : 1848. 

The Whig national convention met at Philadelphia, 
in June, and nominated General Zachary Taylor for 
President on a platform which was silent on the slav- 
ery question. Webster used his great influence to elect 
Taylor. 

The Free Soil Party: 1848. 
In August, the Free Soil Party met in a great con- 
vention at Buffalo, New York. Four hundred and 
sixty-five delegates represented eighteen states. They 
nominated Martin Van Buren for President, and 
adopted a bold and clear anti-slavery platform. They 
declared for "free soil to a free people," and that "Con- 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 57 

gress has no more power to make a slave than to make 
a king; to estabHsh slavery than to establish a mon- 
archy." They threw out a challenge to the South by 
the declaration, "We accept the issue which the slave- 
power has forced upon us; and to their demand for 
more slave States and more slave territory, our calm 
but final answer is, no more slave states and no more 
slave territory. There must be no more compromises 
with slavery; if made, they must be repealed." 

The Election. 

In the election that followed, the Barnburners in 
New York withdrew their support from Cass and 
voted for Van Buren. This gave the thirty-six elec- 
toral votes of the state to Taylor, and on New York 
again hinged the election of the President. Taylor 
and Cass each carried fifteen states. The Free Soil 
Party did not carry a single state, but it turned every 
mind to the great question of slavery. 

Political Excitement During 1849. 
During the year 1849 a steady rise of excitement 
marked both North and South. Almost every legisla- 
ture in the southern states had declared against the 
Wilmot Proviso, and every northern state, except 
Iowa, had declared in favor of it. In January, 1849, 
over eighty southern members of Congress at Wash- 
ington met in secret with doors locked, and adopted 
an address to the South. They declared Congress 
could not forbid slavery in the Territories, and they 
accused the North of violating the fugitive slave law. 
About the same time, Robert Toombs, of Georgia, 
voiced the feeling of the South when he said to the 



58 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

North, "We have the right to call on you to give your 
blood to maintain the slaves of the South in bondage. 
Gentlemen, deceive not yourselves; you cannot de- 
ceive others. This is a pro-slavery government. Slav- 
ery is stamped on its heart — the Constitution." 

Leaders in Congress: 1849- 1850. 

Congress met, amid growing excitement, on Mon- 
day, December 3, 1849. Both sections had sent up 
men of the most marked ability. There appeared Jef- 
ferson Davis, the future President of a slave republic; 
Sam. Houston, of brilliant and romantic history; 
Thomas Benton, for thirty years a senator from Mis- 
souri; Pierre Soule, the eloquent senator from Louis- 
iana; William H. Seward, the statesman of anti-slavery 
men; Salmon P. Chase, the aggressive advocate of 
freedom ; and Stephen A. Douglas, who was, perhaps, 
the strongest debater ever in Congress. But above all 
these, appeared three men with greater reputation, 
wider influence, and longer experience in public affairs. 
Each was over seventy years of age, each had had a 
national reputation for thirty years, and each was 
known in Europe and America. These three men 
were Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. 

Daniel Webster. 

Webster was the ablest of the three. For years 
more than 50,000 lawyers had acknowledged him as 
their leader. No man stood higher as a statesman. 
He had entered public life in 181 3 as a member of the 
House of Representatives, had served nineteen years 
as a senator from Massachusetts, and had been Secre- 
tary of State. His long experience in public affairs, 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 59 

and his high reputation as a lawyer, as an orator, and 
as a statesman, gave him a wide and strong influence 
in the thirty states. He was especially admired by the 
higher circles, and his position on the slavery question 
was studied by millions. On March 7, he spoke on 
that subject, and threw the whole weight of his influ- 
ence for the Compromise of 1850. He struck a giant's 
blow against freedom, but he sincerely believed the 
Union was in danger, and that to preserve it the North 
must suppress its anti-slavery spirit. A few days later, 
he spoke from the balcony of the Revere House in 
Boston, and declared he should "take no step back- 
ward," and that the people of the North, "must learn 
to conquer their prejudices." 

Henry Clay. 

Henry Clay had entered public life about the same 
time as Webster, and had held the same offices. He 
had twice been a candidate for the Presidency, and no 
man then living had such a large and devoted personal 
following. For eight years, he had been out of public 
life, but when the legislature of Kentucky unanimous- 
ly elected him to the Senate, he came to Washington 
strong in patriotism and hope, and fertile in plans to 
reunite the sections. He was in his seventy-third 
year, and at times required the assistance of friends to 
ascend the steps of the Capitol. On January 29, he 
presented his plan in the Senate. A great audience 
had assembled to hear him. Richly dressed ladies, vis- 
itors from Baltimore, members of Congress, gathered 
to hear the man they loved. He spoke on, hour after 
hour, for the great Union. His tall form, now bent 
with years, his v.'hite hair, his face so expressive of 



6o FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

every emotion, added pathos to his eloquent plea for 
his country. 

John C. Calhoun. 

John C. Calhoun began public life about the same 
time as Webster and Clay. He had served as repre- 
sentative and senator in Congress, had been Secretary 
of State, and Vice-President of the United States. His 
was the master mind in the effort at nullification. He 
said in 1848, "If you should ask me the word which 
I would wish engraven on my tombstone, it is 'nulli- 
fication.' " He said slavery was "a good — a positive 
good." His mind had become possessed of one idea, 
and that was, that slavery was the necessary bed-rock 
foundation of southern prosperity. On March 4, 
1850, he appeared in the Senate. Somber, aged, hag- 
gard, gloomy, wrapped in his cloak and too ill to 
speak, he listened, as a friend read the speech which 
he had carefully prepared. It declared unalterably for 
slavery and the rights of the States. 

The Compromise of 1850. 

The Compromise of 1850 embraced five distinct 
laws passed by Congress at different times during the 
year. These laws were as follows : 

1. California was admitted as a free state. 

2. New Mexico and Utah were organized as Terri- 
torities without mention of slavery. 

3. The western boundary of Texas was established, 
and that state was paid $10,000,000 to give up its 
claim on part of New Mexico. 

4. The slave trade, but not slavery, was abolished 
in the District of Columbia. 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 6l 

5. A new and more effective fugitive slave law was 
passed. 

Elxcept the fugitive slave law, the Compromise of 
1850 was fair to the North. With that exception, the 
Compromise was accepted in good faith by Whigs and 
Democrats, by North and South. Most of the leaders 
spoke of it as a "final" settlement of the slavery ques- 
tion. 

California a Free State. 

For a time, the South was disposed to insist on slav- 
ery in California. Gold was discovered there in 1848. 
The next year, more than 80,000 persons went to the 
El Dorado, and by November, 1849, the population 
was above 100,000. Two-thirds of these were Ameri- 
cans, and the rest were from Europe, Mexico, and 
South America. Government was quickly organized, 
and the next year California asked admission as a free 
state. The only two papers there were outspoken 
against slavery. On September 9, 1850, Congress ad- 
mitted California as a free state. 

Slave Trade in the District of Columbia. 
Both slavery and the slave trade existed in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia in 1789. Twelve years later, Con- 
gress enacted that the laws of Maryland relating to 
slavery should be valid in that part of the District 
north of the Potomac river. During the next fifty 
years, Washington became a regular market where 
slaves were bought and sold in large numbers. Gangs 
of handcuffed slaves were frequently seen on the 
streets. On the payment of $400 to the city govern- 
ment, regular traders were licensed to buy and sell 



62 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

slaves in the District. The law of 1850 abolished this 
abominable traffic, but did not forbid slavery itself. 

The Fugitive Slave Law. 

To the North, the fugitive slave law was, by far, 
the most offensive of the five acts of the great Com- 
promise. This law empowered each of the circuit 
courts of the United States to appoint a commissioner 
for a given district. This commissioner was a kind 
of judge to determine the freedom or slavery of the 
fugitive. No jury was allowed the runaway, nor was 
he permitted to testify for his own liberty. The affi- 
davit of the owner, or his agent, was sufficient to re- 
turn the prisoner into bondage. The law even made 
the commissioner's fee higher for adjudging the fugi- 
tive to be a slave rather than a free man. If the pris- 
oner escaped, the United States marshal was liable to 
the owner for the value of the slave. In case of such 
a rescue, the bystanders were, by law, compelled to aid 
the marshal. 

The effect of this law was immediate. Thousands 
of negroes at tlie North at once went to Canada. Nu- 
merous arrests were soon made, mobs secured the 
prisoners, and violation of the law was openly advo- 
cated. 

Cotton is King: 1820-1860. 

The Factory System in England and New 
England. 

Several inventions in England had very great effect 
upon cotton culture in the United States. In 1769, 
Arkwright made the first spinning jenny, and fourteen 
years later. Watt discovered the power of steam to 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 63 

move machinery. In 1785, Cartwright invented llie 
power loom, and the same year, Bell used cylinders for 
printing calicoes. During the next fifteen years the 
cotton trade doubled in England, and the factory sys- 
tem was well under way. By 1850, there were 2,650 
cotton mills in England, employing nearly half a mil- 
lion persons, and steam vessels now carried to these 
mills yearly more than 3,000,000 bales of cotton from 
the United States. This rising demand increased the 
supply of cotton. Money was plenty in the South, 
and every year saw an increased cotton crop. 

The first cotton mill in the United States was oper- 
ated at Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1787. In i860, 
there were nearly a thousand mills in the North, and a 
considerable part of the southern crop found its way 
to New England by sea or by rail. Thus the mills of 
England and New England enormously increased the 
cotton culture of the South. 

The Cotton Belt. 

The first cotton grown in the colonies was produced 
at Jamestown, in 1607; but even at the time of the 
American Revolution, the crop was of no importance. 
In 1793 it was raised only along the tide-water region 
from Virginia to Georgia. In that year, Whitney's 
invention of the cotton gin at once raised the value 
and importance of the crop. This machine quickly and 
cheaply removed the seed from the cotton. It was not 
many years before every planter had his own gin, and 
was able to market a far greater supply. The cotton 
belt spread rapidly westward, but even in 1821, the 
four Atlantic seaboard states produced two-thirds of 
all that was grown. During the next forty years, the 



64 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

cotton fields spread over the vast and fertile lands of 
Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkan- 
sas, and Texas. Louisiana and Mississippi were called 
"The Cotton Garden of the World." Cotton now be- 
came the great crop of the South, and Ex-Governor 
Hammond, of South Carolina, said, "Cotton is King." 

Land Killing. 

The extension of the cotton belt was accompanied 
by an increasing number of waste cotton fields. No' 
fertilizers were used. The field was "cropped" year 
after year, and this "land killing" became the rule. So 
rapidly had this gone on, that in 1850, less than one- 
third of the lands of the two Carolinas and Georgia 
was improved, while in all New England, New York, 
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey more than two-thirds 
of the land was under cultivation. 

Cotton Growing. 

When a planter needed a new field for cotton, his 
slaves girdled the larger trees on a piece of woodland, 
cut down the smaller ones, cleared away the land, and 
loosely cultivated the soil. Corn was then raised one or 
two years. After this, the soil was more thoroughly 
cultivated, and thrown into ridges about four feet 
apart. These ridges were then split open, and about 
two bushels of seed to the acre were planted in them. 
The planting took place from February to May and 
was generally done by women and children. When 
the plant was several inches high, the rows were 
thinned out so as to form hills about twelve inches 
apart. The field was then carefully hoed every twenty 
days, and then worked over from three to five times 



THE IRKEPRESSIIiLE CONFLICT. 65 

before the picking began. The first blooms appeared 
in May and June, but the picking season lasted from 
August to December. All the slaves — men, women 
and children — picked the cotton, and the amount gath- 
ered by each slave varied from fifty, to five hundred 
pounds per day. The tools used on a cotton plantation 
were of the rudest kind. On a South Carolina planta- 
tion of 2,700 acres, and employing 254 slaves, only 
$1,262 was invested in tools and wagons. The rule 
was to "wear out" the tools. The crop was taken to 
market in rude wagons or carts or by flatboats on the 
river. The profits of cotton-raising were often thirty- 
five per cent. 

Plantation Life: 1820- 1860. 
The Stately Home. 
The stately home of the master and mistress was 
the center of interest of the whole plantation. Placed 
on a hill in a. woodland of noble oaks and hickories, it 
commanded a view of stream, and valley, and fields 
of corn, and cotton. At a distance, its white columns 
and Greek portico seemed embosomed in a mass of 
green. Over all the landscape was thrown the ex- 
quisite charm of the long summer of the South. The 
house was usually a story and a half in height, with 
fine columns and portico in front, a wide hallway, and 
large rooms. Names, such as Mount Vernon, Monti- 
cello, Arlington, Ashland, were given to these hospita- 
ble homes. 

The Master. 

The master was a fine type of manhood. His char- 
acter appeared in two distinct ways, and in both he 
commanded respect. First of all, he was the owner 



()6 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

of hundreds and often thousands of acres of land, and 
had the pride of ownership. He was the master of 
numerous slaves, and daily accustomed to implicit 
obedience. He acquired a fixed habit of command. 
He was generally a public man, and held a local, state, 
or national position of trust. His integrity was un- 
questioned, his courage undoubted. But, in contrast 
with these stronger traits of his character, was his 
courteous and refined bearing to his family and 
friends. He was, by instinct and training, a gentle- 
man. His chivalry to women, his respect to men, his 
kindness in his home, his unfailing and warm hospital- 
ity to his friends, his ability in conversation, his digni- 
fied yet easy bearing, gave refinement and courtesy to 
southern life and manners. 

The Mistress. 

The mistress ruled supreme in the home. Loved by 
her husband, adored by her children, and worshiped 
by the servants, her life was one of goodness and de- 
votion. Often, at night, among the servants, she was 
caring for the sick, giving sympathy and advice, and 
providing comforts and necessities. She took pride in 
the flower garden and made it the especial object of 
her care and taste. In the social circle, she was the 
center of attention and courtesy. 

The Servants. 

The "servants" performed the various kinds of labor 
around the house. They were generally better shel- 
tered, clothed, and fed, than the "field hands." See- 
ing much of a refined home, they caught something of 
its courtesy and manner. One was a coachman, anoth- 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. d^J 

er a gardener, a carpenter, a cook, or a waiter; but 
among all these, the old "Mammy" held the place of 
honor and affection. She was a kind of mother, nurse, 
and attendant to the master's children. She had con- 
siderable authority, and might punish, but she usually 
ruled her "chillun" by affectionate tenderness and 
care. 

The Field Hands. 
The "field hands" performed the harder labor of the 
plantation. They often worked sixteen or eighteen 
hours a day, and took a noon rest of an hour. Their 
work in the rice, sugar, and cotton fields was hard 
and hopeless. A slave, able to pick four or five hun- 
dred pounds of cotton a day, was called a "cotton nig- 
ger." Each slave in the field was rated as a "full 
hand," "half hand," or "quarter hand," and was ex- 
pected to perform only such given amount of work. 

The Negro Quarters. 
When the day's labor was ended, the slaves re- 
turned to the "negro quarters." These were their 
cabins in a motley cluster at some distance from the 
planter's home. These cabins were generally dirty and 
wretched. In Mississippi and Louisiana, each one con- 
sisted of a single room about twenty feet square. The 
furniture was of the rudest and poorest kind. Each 
family was allowed a "truck patch" to raise vegetables 
and poultry, and with these the slave bought whiskey, 
tobacco and Sunday finery. 

Food and Clothing of the Slaves. 
The food and clothing of the slaves consisted of the 
barest necessities. Forty-six slave-holders on sugar 



68 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

plantations in Louisiana reported that the total cost of 
food and clothing for an able-bodied slave was only 
$30 per year. One Louisiana planter paid, in one 
year, $750 for food and hospital service for one hun- 
dred negroes, or two cents a day for each slave. The 
regular food allowed was four quarts of cornmeal and 
one quart of molasses each week. Besides this, vegeta- 
bles were often given by the master -or raised by the 
slave ; but meat was not used. Poor as the food was, 
it was enough in quantity; but the convicts of the 
North had greater variety. If the food was bad, the 
slave's clothes were worse. He was often without hat 
or shoes, and was covered with rags and dirt. He was, 
in a double sense, the "mud-sill" of Southern society. 

The White Overseer. 

In ten states, in 1850, the average size of the plan- 
tation was 401 acres; and on nearly all the large es- 
tates an overseer was hired to direct the labor of the 
"field hands." He was paid from $200 to $600 a year, 
and often received much more. He was valued in pro- 
portion to the amount of work which he could get 
from the negroes. He was given despotic power over 
the life and labor of the slave. He was generally ig- 
norant, often drunken, and by nature brutal. Though 
white and free, he was held in scorn by the planter and 
his family. He appointed a negro driver, who was 
held responsible for the labor of a small gang of 
slaves. This driver was usually a large, powerful ne- 
gro, and carried a heavy whip. 

Flogging was common, but was not inflicted in 
wanton cruelty. The overseer or driver often said, 
"If you don't work better, I will flog you;" but as a 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 69 

rule, blows were not given except for idleness or petty- 
offenses. Yet if an overseer killed a slave, nothing 
was done; for the negro was only property, and not 
a person in the sight of the law. 

The Sale of Slaves. 

Slaves were sold like cattle, but care was often taken 
that families should not be separated. "Cash for Ne- 
groes," "Negroes for Sale," "Negroes Wanted," were 
common advertisements in the papers. Mules and 
negroes were frequently advertised together. By 
actual count, sixty-four newspapers in two weeks, in 
1852, offered for sale 4,100 slaves. One man in Rich- 
mond advertised his farm and forty slaves, that he 
might raise money to become a missionary. In the 
larger towns, were slave prisons, where the negroes 
were locked until sold. When brought into the room 
where the buyers were, they were placed upon a low 
platform, and their teeth, hair, eyes, limbs, weight, and 
health were carefully examined. Before the war. Gen- 
eral Sherman saw in New Orleans young girls thus 
treated on the auction block, and he never forgot the 
impression then made. Lincoln came out of such a 
room, with an oath' like a prayer, to strike a great 
blow at slavery some day. But, in general, the slaves 
were indifferent at the auction block. They even took 
pride in their price, which rose from $325, in 1840, 
to $500, in i860. 

The Domestic Slave Trade. 

A regular and important trade was carried on be- 
tween the border states of Maryland, Virginia. Ken- 
tucky, and Missouri, and the Gulf states. In one year 



70 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

alone — 1836 — Virginia sold to the South and West 
40,000 slaves, valued at $24,000,000. In the same 
year, Mississippi bought 250,000 negroes. The slave 
had a horror of being "sold South," and to prevent 
escapes, .strong depots were built with locks and bars, 
and provided with thumbscrews for punishment. 
Gangs of handcuffed negroes were often seen on the 
roads leading South. 

The Foreign Slave Trade. 

The law of 1808 forbade the importation of slaves 
from any foreign country to the United States under 
a penalty of $20,000 and confiscation of the vessel 
caught in the trade; but the law was notoriously vio- 
lated. In 1820, southern men estimated the number 
smuggled in, at from thirteen to fifteen thousand a 
year. In 1859, Stephen A. Douglas said he had no 
doubt that 15,000 had that year been brought into the 
United States. 

Operation of the Fugitive Slave Law : 1850- 1860. 

Within eight days after its passage, the fugitive 
slave law of 1850 was set in operation. Only a few 
typical examples will be given, but these will show the 
terror or the indignation excited by the execution of 
the law. During ten years, numberless outrages and 
tragedies followed this last attempt to enforce slave 
labor. 

While at work in New York, James Hamlet, a ne- 
gro slave from Maryland, was seized, given a hearing 
before the commissioner, adjudged to be a slave, hand- 
cuffed, forced into a carriage and taken to Baltimore, 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. Jl 

where he was placed in a slave pen kept by the no- 
torious Hope Slatter. 

The Jerry Rescue. 

Another case in the same state aroused deep indig- 
nation. For several years, a negro, Jerry McHenry, 
had lived at Syracuse, New York. On October i, 
1 85 1, he was seized, placed and held in a wagon, by 
force, and taken to the jail. That evening a score of 
the best citizens broke open the door of the jail, and 
rescued the slave. For several days, McHenry was 
concealed, and finally taken to Canada. For this of- 
fense, eighteen of the leading men of Syracuse were 
arrested, and taken before the United States court at 
Albany. On their day of hearing, one hundred promi- 
nent citizens went with them to Albany, and William 
H. Seward gave bail for them. Nothing further came 
of the case. 

The Simms Case. 

Six months before the "Jerry rescue," Thomas M. 
Simms was seized, under the law, and lodged in the 
jail of the court-house in Boston. To prevent a res- 
cue, heavy chains were fastened around the jail. The 
next morning, the judges of the Supreme Court of 
Massachusetts had to stoop as they passed under these 
chains of slavery. At five o'clock in the morning, the 
slave was placed in a hollow square formed by three 
hundred policemen, marched to the wharf, and sent to 
Georgia. While Simms was in jail, Wendell Phillips 
spoke on Boston Common against the outrage, and a 
few days later an indignation meeting was held in 
Faneuil Hall. 



'j2 freedom vs. slavery, 

At Wilkesbarre. 

A deputy marshal and three Virginians came to 
Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, and found a mulatto em- 
ployed at a hotel. They struck him on the back of 
the head with a club, but he fought them off with ter- 
rible energy with a handcuff which they had quickly 
put on his right wrist. With his hand covered with 
blood, he rushed into the Susquehanna River, saying, 
"I will be drowned rather than taken alive." While 
in the water up to his neck, they repeatedly shot at 
him; and finally struck his head, and the blood ran 
over his face. A crowd by this time gathered, the 
wounded man came out of the water, and, as he lay 
dying on the shore, one of his pursuers remarked, 
"Dead niggers were not worth taking South." Even 
after this, as he revived, he was driven a second time 
a mob soon broke open the jail, and sent the slave to 
Canada. The rescuers were not arrested, and the Su- 
into the river; but the crowd interfered, and the pur- 
suers fled. Later, they were arrested for this crime, 
but Judge Grier of the United States Supreme Court 
discharged the Virginians, and said no blame attached 
to them. 

At Racine, Wisconsin. 

In 1854 a fugitive slave named Glover was arrested 
at Racine, Wisconsin. He was knocked down, put in 
a wagon, driven quickly to Milwaukee, and lodged in 
jail. A mass meeting at Racine resolved that Glover 
should have a fair trial, and one hundred citizens went 
to Milwaukee, where they learned that a meeting of 
five thousand people had appointed a vigilance com- 
mittee to see that Glover was given a fair trial. But 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 73 

preme Court of the state decided that the fugitive slave 
law was unconstitutional. 

Effect of the Law. 

The execution of the fugitive slave law produced a 
long succession of tragedies ; but for every fugitive re- 
turned to the South, hundreds of men at the North 
joined the anti-slavery party. The law was openly 
defied, and such men as Emerson said it would, and 
should be violated. Ten northern states soon passed 
"Personal Liberty Laws," which insured a fair trial, 
and prohibited the use of the state jails to the fugi- 
tives. Only two states, California and New Jersey, 
provided by law for the capture and return of slaves, 
and even there, public opinion often broke state and 
national laws and set the captive free. 

The Underground Railroad: 1840-1860. 
The Main Line. 
The "Underground Railroad" was the name given 
to the ways and means by which thousands of slaves 
escaped to the North. There were three main sys- 
tems to this "Railroad." The first set of lines enabled 
slaves from Missouri to escape northeast across Illi- 
nois. The second system led north across Ohio and 
western Pennsylvania. The third system went north 
across eastern Pennsylvania. Ohio had the greatest 
number of these lines and Oberlin was the most noted 
station. Twenty lines crossing that state enabled 
more negroes to escape than by either of the other sys- 
tems. Many lines converged to Philadelphia, and 
thence diverged to the north. One line went from 
Washington to Albany; and another, from Gettysburg 



74 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and then by v^^ay of EI- 
mira and Niagara Falls to Canada. 

Passengers, Stations, and Conductors. 

The slaves thus escaping north came mainly from 
Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, and Dela- 
w^are. They ran from the field, kitchen, and shop to 
some forest or swamp. They traveled by night, guided 
by the north star. Often followed by bloodhounds, 
always in danger, trudging on in the darkness, con- 
cealed by day in boxes, or barns, or brush, footsore, 
weary, penniless, hungry, stealing food rather than 
trust other slaves, they reached, at last, some station 
on the underground railroad. Such a station was 
some farmer's house where the fugitive received food, 
clothing, and concealment, and was then taken in some 
box, or load of hay, or by night to the next station. 
Canada offered the only place of true safety, but thou- 
sands of negroes settled in the northern states an<J 
were protected by public opinion. 

Northern Leaders. 

There is on record a list of three thousand and 
eleven persons who actively aided the negroes to es- 
cape along the various lines of the underground rail- 
road. Among the most eminent were: Salmon P. 
Chase, who was called the "attorney-general for fugi- 
tives," and who was afterwards in Lincoln's cabinet; 
Rutherford B. Hayes, later President of the United 
States; Joshua Giddings, for long years in Congress 
as the enemy of slavery; Theodore Parker, the great 
minister of Boston; Thaddeus Stevens, one of the 
foremost lawyers of Pennsylvania; Frederick Doug- 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 75 

lass, the well-known orator. Gerrit Smith, of Wil- 
mington, Delaware, aided two thousand seven hun- 
dred slaves to escape, and paid eight thousand dollars 
in fines for violation of the law. Levi Coffin, of Ohio, 
aided nearly three thousand to escape. Harriet Beech- 
er Stowe helped many on their way to freedom. 

Uncle Tom's Cabin. 

In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published "Uncle 
Tom's Cabin." Within six months, more than seven- 
ty-five thousand copies were sold in the United States, 
and twice that number in Great Britain and her colo- 
nies. It was dramatized the same year, and later, was 
translated into twenty-three languages. Kxtreme abo- 
litionists at once proclaimed the work as a true picture 
of slavery, and the slave-holders of the South ridi- 
culed the book as the work of a fanatic and a despised 
abolitionist. The book well and truthfully represent- 
ed the dark and brutal side of slavery, but it only half 
portrayed the daily life of most slaves, and it utterly 
failed to reflect the courtesy and charm of southern 
society. The work had a wide and increasing influ- 
ence in the North and rapidly. filled the ranks of a new 
and powerful anti-slavery party. 

The Campaign and Election of 1852. 
The campaign and election of 1852 showed little of 
the great change that was silently but surely going on 
at the North. The army of politicians, intent on get- 
ting office, was not responsive to the new movement 
for justice and freedom. These men controlled both 
the national conventions, which met in June at Balti- 
more. In their platforms both Whigs and Democrats 



y^ FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

declared for the Compromise of 1850, including the 
fugitive slave law. The Democrats declared against 
all forms of slavery agitation. The leaders of both 
parties showed a plain and even anxious intention to 
stop all talk of the slavery question. But this was 
precisely the question that was uppermost in men's 
minds, and when a clear statement concerning it was 
made, it received a wide audience. Such a statement 
was put forth in the platform of the Free Soil conven- 
tion which met at Pittsburg on August 11. This party 
declared : "Slavery is a sin against God, and a crime 
against man;" "The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 is 
repugnant to the Constitution;" "Slavery is sectional 
and freedom national;" "No more slave States, no 
more slave Territories, no nationalized slavery, and 
no national legislation for the extradition of slaves." 
In the election that followed, the Democrats carried 
every state except four; but beneath this success, 
forces were then operating to form a new and power- 
ful political party of freedom, and to place the North 
and South in hostile array. 

The Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 

Within two years after the election, the politicians 
resolved on a bold move in favor of slavery. On Janu- 
ary 23, 1854, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, intro- 
duced in the Senate of the United States a bill to or- 
ganize the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and 
to repeal that part of the Missouri Compromise which 
prohibited slavery in the two Territories. It was fur- 
ther provided that the Fugitive Slave Law should ex- 
tend to both Territories, and it was the clear intention 
to make Kansas a slave state. 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFMCT. "jy 

SxEniEN A. Douglas. 

Far more than any other man, Stephen A. Douglas 
was responsible for this bill. Tv;o years before, he was 
a candidate for the Presidency in the Democratic na- 
tional convention, and the glittering prize yet called 
forth all his energy and ambition. He saw that the 
way to the White House was to please the slave power. 
He knew that the South had neither asked nor hoped 
for slave territory north of Missouri; and that the 
North would offer a strong opposition to his plan. A 
few weeks before he took this great step, he was riding 
with Senator Dixon, of Kentucky, and after a long 
conversation about the question, Douglas said, "I will 
do it." On March 3, 1854, he faced an able and deter- 
mined opposition in the Senate. He spoke till day- 
break, and showed great power in the running debate. 
He was below the medium height, with a heavy frame 
and massive head. His physical endurance and force, 
his clearness of statement, and bold reply won admira- 
tion from all sides. Seward said, "I have never had 
so much respect for the Senator as I have tonight." 

The Bill in Congress. 
The bill was before Congress four months and at- 
tracted wide attention. It came as a shock to the 
North. The papers declared, "Slavery takes the field." 
Public meetings were held in New York, Boston, and 
Chicago to protest against the bill. The legislatures of 
five states declared against it. Three thousand clergy- 
men of the various denominations in New England laid 
before the Senate a protest in which they said the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise was a "great moral 
wrong and a breach of the faith." The debate in Con- 



78 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

gress was earnest and often bitter. Mr. Badger, of 
North Carolina, said in the Senate, "Is it not hard, if 
I should choose to emigrate to Kansas, that I should 
be forbidden to take my old mammy along with me?" 
Ben Wade, of Ohio, replied, "We have not the least 
objection to the Senator's migration to Kansas and 
taking his old mammy along with him. We only in- 
sist that he shall not be empowered to sell her after 
taking her there." 

The Law. 

To give a reason for the bill, Douglas invented one 
called the doctrine of "non-intervention" or "squatter 
sovereignty." He wrote in the law this doctrine : "It 
being the true intent and meaning of this act not to 
legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to 
exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof 
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions in their own way, subject only to the Con- 
stitution." The bill became a law on May 30, 1854, 
and transferred the whole struggle from Congress to 
Kansas. 

The Struggle to Settle Kansas. 

In 1854, six northern border counties of Missouri 
had a population of 60,000 white persons and 18,000 
slaves. The central and eastern part of the state 
was held by slave-holders, and a determined effort was 
now put forth to capture Kansas for slavery. In 
the month following the passage of the act, hundreds 
of Missouri farmers with their slaves crossed the west- 
ern boundary of the state into Kansas. Lawless and 
desperate men from other southern states also came 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 79 

to the new territory. But thousands at the North 
determined to make Kansas a free state. Though 
Massachusetts was 2,000 miles away, yet "Emigrant 
Aid Societies" were formed and many from New 
England took the long journey to the West. John 
Brown, with his four sons, went out from Ohio, with 
a burning hatred for slavery. In a few months, an 
election was held to organize a government for Kan- 
sas, and the slave-holders triumphed. But the elec- 
tion was carried by fraud. Out of the six thousand 
votes cast, only about eight hundred were by legal set- 
tlers. Bands of men came across from Missouri, and 
after voting returned to that state. The free settlers 
ignored the government on the ground that it had 
been set up by fraud, but it was supported by the fed- 
eral officers at Washington. 

A Double Government. 

In September, 1857, the slave-holders held a consti- 
tutional convention at Lecompton; and after drawing 
up a constitution for Kansas, submitted it to the peo- 
ple in two ways : "For the constitution with slavery" ; 
"For the constitution without slavery." This gave the 
people no chance to vote against the constitution it- 
self. In the election which followed, 6,266 votes were 
given for the constitution with slavery ; and only 567 
for it without slavery. The free settlers refused to 
vote at all. The next month the free settlers elected 
a delegate to Congress, and a legislature for Kansas. 
This legislature again submitted the Lecompton con- 
stitution to the people in two ways : "For the consti- 
tution"; "Against the constitution." Ten thousand 
two hundred and twenty-six votes were given against 



80 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

the constitution, and one hundred and sixty-two for 
it. The slave-holders had, in turn, refused to vote. 

Border Warfare. 

This double government went on for years and 
caused crime and disorder. Douglas's clear, legal 
doctrine of non-intervention had arrayed neighbor 
against neighbor, town against town, and had caused 
innumerable midnight raids for plunder and murder. 
Squatter sovereignty had produced anarchy. 

The Ostend Manifesto: 1854, 

In 1854, the South made another effort to get more 
slave territory. Six years before, the government of 
the United States had offered Spain $100,000,000 for 
Cuba, but Spain treated the proposal as an insult. The 
American government then instructed its ministers to 
Spain, France, and England to meet, and consider a 
plan by which the United States might acquire Cuba. 
The three ministers, Soule, Mason, and Buchanan^ 
met at Ostend, Belgium, in October, 1854. They issued 
a manifesto declaring for the purchase of Cuba for 
$120,000,000; "but if Spain, dead to the voice of her 
own interest, and actuated by stubborn pride and a 
false sense of honor, should refuse to sell Cuba to the 
United States," then "we shall be justified in wresting 
it from Spain if we possess the power." This mani- 
festo attracted wide attention in Europe. The Lon- 
don Times stated : "In this Ostend manifesto a policy 
is avowed which, if declared by one of the great Euro- 
pean powers, would set the whole continent in a 
blaze." War was expected at Madrid. Soule, the 
minister of the young nation that was rising with so 



THE IRREPRB3SIBLE CONFLICT. 8l 

much power beyond the ocean, was received at the 
Spanish court with marked attention. Besides repre- 
senting a nation that seemed to adopt the language 
and attitude of a highwayman, he was well qualified to 
attract notice anywhere. He appeared before the king 
and queen of Spain in a costume like that worn by 
Benjamin Franklin at the court of France. His black 
velvet suit richly embroidered, his black silk stock- 
ings, his dress sword, his pale complexion set off by 
black eyes and hair, made him a marked figure. Part 
of the President's cabinet desired war with Spain. A 
reckless plan to invade Cuba was well known at the 
South. Senator Slidell, of Louisiana, started a move- 
ment in the Senate to suspend the neutrality laws to 
aid such a hostile expedition to Cuba. The Ostend 
manifesto w^as thus the declaration and part of a gen- 
eral plan to extend the area of slavery. The South 
hoped that Cuba, as well as Kansas, might be made 
a slave state. 

Rise of the Republican Party: 1854-1856. 

The Kansas and Nebraska act of 1854 was a blow 
strong enough to weld the various anti-slavery ele- 
ments into one compact political party. For four 
years, the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law had 
multiplied the enemies of slavery. "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin" had been read with emotion in tens of thou- 
sands of homes. The breaking up of the Whig party 
paved the w^ay for a new party. The solid front of 
the Democratic party in defense of slavery demanded 
the formation of a party for freedom. 



82 freedom vs. slavery. 

Origin of the Name Republican. 

The earliest move for a new party was at Ripon, 
Wisconsin. In February, 1854, A. E. Bovay called a 
meeting at the Congregational church to protest against 
the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. This village 
political meeting was largely attended by men and 
women, and they passed resolutions tO' form a new 
party if Congress should pass the bill opening Kansas 
to slavery. Mr. Bovay then said that the new party 
would probably be called Republican, but he advised 
delay as to the name. On February 26, 1854, he 
wrote Horace Greeley, editor of the New York 
Tribune : "Now is the time to organize a great party 
to oppose slavery. . . . Your paper is now a 
power in the land. . . . Urge all parties to band 
together under one name, I mean the name Repub- 
lican." On June 24, the Tribune stated that the name 
Republican had been suggested; and each week this 
paper then went out to 150,000 persons. 

The Name Adopted. 
The Tribune was a kind of political Bible in the 
North. Greeley now wrote Jacob M. Howard, of 
Michigan, that Wisconsin would adopt the name Re- 
publican on July 13, and he urged all the anti-slavery 
men of Michigan to choose the same name at their 
state convention on July 6. This convention met at 
Jackson, "under the oaks." Zachariah Chandler and 
a fugitive slave were the principal speakers. The as- 
sembly "Resolved, That the institution of slavery, ex- 
cept in punishment of crimes, is a great moral, social, 
and political evil." The first Republican ticket was 
put forth, and the name formally adopted. 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 83 

Just a week later, Wisconsin and Vermont adopted 
the name. On the same day, 10,000 people assembled 
at Indianapolis, and passed resolutions against the 
Kansas-Nebraska Law, but the name Republican w^as 
not chosen. On July 20, 1854, 2,500 people met at 
Worcester, Massachusetts, and declared against slav- 
ery and in favor of the name Republican, These vari- 
ious state conventions resolved against one or more 
of the following: The Kansas-Nebraska Law, the 
Fugitive Slave Law, and slavery in the District of 
Columbia. In the fall election the new party carried 
nine states. 

Sources of the Nev^^ Party, 

The Republican party got its members from three 
other parties. The Free Soilers eagerly joined a party 
so like their own. Thousands of northern Democrats 
came out for freedom. But the main strength came 
from the W^higs, The members of this party were now 
in political confusion. For long years, they had relied 
on the rare leadership of Clay, and the still rarer ability 
of Webster, and now both were gone. The party was 
hopelessly divided on the slavery question. Most of the 
northern Whigs believed slavery was wTong, and be- 
sides it was easier to join a new party than to vote with 
old enemies. These three sources furnished to the Re- 
publican party in 1854 its sudden and rapid growth. 

Lack of Leaders. 

But at this time the new party lacked leadership. 
Horace Greeley did more than any other man to unite 
the North against the slave power. Salmon P. Chase, 



84 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY, 

of Ohio, was an able and aggressive advocate of free- 
dom. Seward was the man best quahfied to lead the 
whole party; but he did not join the new movement 
until the next year. In the autumn of 1855, he spoke out 
at Albany, and his speech was read by half a million 
men. He then said: "We want a bold, outspoken, 
free-spoken organization. . . . Shall we report 
ourselves to the Whig party? Where is it? . 
The Republican organization has laid a new, sound 
and liberal platform, broad enough" for Whigs and 
Democrats to stand upon. Seward's influence was 
powerful in strengthening the new party. 

The Call for a New Party. 

In January, 1856, the chairmen of the Republican 
State Central Committees of Massachusetts, Vermont, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin invited the Repub- 
licans of the North to meet at Pittsburg on February 
22 to form a national party. On the day appointed, 
delegates from twenty-three states listened to speeches 
by Greeley, Chandler, Wilmot, Lovejoy, and Giddings. 
This assembly issued an address to the people, and 
appointed a time and place for a national conven- 
tion. 

The Convention. 
This convention met at Philadelphia in June, Two 
thousand men represented twenty-two states and terri- 
tories. The platform declared, "it is both the right 
and imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the 
territories those twin relics of barbarism — polygamy 
and slavery." When John C. Fremont was nominated 
for President, the delegates threw hats and handker- 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 85 

chiefs into the air, and a large silk flag bearing his 
name was drawn across the stage. 

The Democratic Party. 

The Democratic national convention met at Cincin- 
nati in June, and nominated James Buchanan for 
President. The Richmond Enquirer truly stated of 
Buchanan: "He never gave a vote against the inter- 
ests of slavery, and never uttered a word which could 
pain the most sensitive southern heart." The plat- 
form declared for the Compromise of 1850, and for 
the Kansas-Nebraska Law. 

The Election of 1856. 

In the following election the Republicans carried 
every northern state but New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Indiana, and Illinois; and even in these four states 
they showed great strength. The Democrats carried 
these states and also the solid South, except Mary- 
land, which gave its votes to a third party. Fremont 
got 1,341,264, and Buchanan 1,838,169 votes. The 
Republicans, in the brief space of two years, had made 
sweeping advances; and they justly regarded the elec- 
tion of 1856 as a moral triumph. 

The Attack on Sumner: 1856. 

A month before Fremont was nominated at Phila- 
delphia, Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, delivered 
in the Senate a speech entitled, "The Crime against 
Kansas," in which he made a bitter attack on Senator 
Butler, of South Carolina. Two days later, Preston 
Brooks, a representative from South Carolina, and a 
nephew of Butler, came into the Senate Chamber, and 



86 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

while Sumner was seated at his desk writing, struck 
him again and again on the head with a heavy gutta- 
percha cane an inch in diameter. Sumner feU back in 
his chair unconscious, and with the blood running over 
his face. The House by a vote of 121 to 95 failed to 
expel Brooks — as a two-thirds majority was necessary. 
But he at once resigned his seat, and, after being treated 
as a hero for three weeks in his state, was re-elected to 
Congress. The South either excused his action or ap- 
proved of it, while the North denounced it in un- 
measured scorn. 

The Dred Scott Case. 

Two days after the slave power had inaugurated a 
President of the United States, the Supreme Court 
handed down a decision intended to be of far-reaching 
effect. It related to slavery in the territories. Dred 
Scott was the slave of an army surgeon who resided in 
Missouri. His master had taken him to Illinois, and 
later to Minnesota. The laws of Illinois prohibited 
slavery in that state, and Congress, in 1820, had pro- 
hibited slavery in Minnesota. In 1853, Scott began 
a suit for his liberty in the courts of the United 
States. He claimed his freedom on the ground of 
residence in a free state and territory. The case came 
up on appeal to the Supreme Court, and was decided 
March 6, 1856, 

The Decision. 

The decision consisted of two distinct parts: The 
first held that Scott was not a citizen of Missouri, and 
hence not entitled to sue in the courts of the United 
States; that the laws of Illinois did not set him free; 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFUCT. 87 

that, "the right of property in a slave is distinctly and 
expressly affirmed in the Constitution"; that the law 
passed by Congress forbidding slavery in Minnesota 
was unconstitutional, and that Dred Scott be there- 
fore sent back to slavery. 

The second part of the decision went far beyond the 
question of one man's liberty. It held that Congress 
could no more exclude slaves from the territories than 
it could shut out any other form of property, and that 
Congress was bound to protect the slave-owner's right 
to his property. At one blow, this decision swept away 
every law, and established the right to slavery in every 
territory from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean. No 
appeal could be taken from this great court except the 
appeal to arms. The slave power now held two of the 
departments of the government, and defied the third. 

The Judges. 

The judges were influenced by the society in which 
they moved. Five of them were southern men. They 
often heard the debates in Congress. They dined, and 
talked with the leaders of the South. There was no 
plot to influence their decision, but the judges soon 
came to believe that by forever settling the slavery 
question they would render the Supreme Court illus- 
trious. 

No Plot. 

But there was a general impression at the North that 
the decision was the result of a plot. This idea was 
best expressed by Lincoln : 'Tf we saw a lot of framed 
timbers gotten out at different times and places by 
different workmen — Stephen, and Franklin, and 



OO FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

Roger, and James — and if we saw these timbers joined 
together and exactly made the frame of a house, with 
tenons and mortises all fitting, what is the conclusion? 
We find it impossible not to believe that Stephen, and 
Franklin, and Roger, and James, all understood one 
another from the beginning, and all worked upon a 
common plan before the first blow was struck." This 
statement was very popular, but it did not portray the 
real influences back of the great decision. 

The opinion of the court filled two hundred and 
forty printed pages, and was a cold and pitiless review 
of the bondage and degradation of the negroes. Lin- 
coln well expressed its spirit toward the slave: "All 
the powers of earth seem rapidly combining against 
him. Mammon is after him, ambition follows, philoso- 
phy and the theology of the day is fast joining the 
cry. They have him in his prison house, they have 
searched his person and left no prying instrument with 
him. One after another, they have closed the iron 
doors upon him, and now they have him, as it were, 
bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, which can 
never be unlocked without the concurrence of every 
key, the keys in the hands of a hundred different men, 
and they scattered to a hundred different and distant 
places." 

The Lincoln and Douglas Debate: 1858. 

The Dred Scott decision gave an impetus to slavery 
agitation. In the election of 1858, the Republicans 
everywhere polled a much heavier vote. Pennsylvania, 
the President's home state, voted strongly against his 
administration. Illinois, for the first time, was car- 
ried by the Republicans. In this state, the "Lincoln 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 89 

and Douglas Debate" held the attention of the nation 
for months to the single issue of slavery extension. 
All through the North, sprang up renewed interest in 
the slavery question. 

Douglas. 

The character and reputation of the men had much 
to do with the importance of the debate between Lin- 
coln and Douglas. Although a young man, Douglas 
had been a leading candidate for the Presidency, had 
been in Congress for years, and in the Senate had met 
no equal in debate. His clear and vigorous English, 
his great energy in bold and direct statement, and his 
rapidity of thought and fertility of mind, were the 
striking qualities of this natural orator and advocate. 
Long practice had taught him the moods and emo- 
tions of assemblages; and no man before an audience 
was better qualified to act the part of Marc Antony. 
But his situation demanded all his ability. It was well 
known that the President and his friends desired to 
see Douglas defeated. With most men, this fact 
would have meant defeat. The Republican party, too, 
was daily increasing in strength. With loss of friends 
and increase of enemies, Douglas now put forth the 
greatest effort of his life. 

Lincoln. 

Lincoln was now in his fiftieth year. From poverty 
and obscurity, he had raised himself to leadership in 
his state. Without the aid of schools, he had won high 
rank for his pure and clear English. In a rude society, 
he had all the instincts of a gentleman. His kindness 
was as deeply inwrought in his nature as was his 



90 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

humor. He loved the truth for its ov^rn sake. He 
beheved in the right, and that in the end the right 
would triumph. He had an abiding faith in the com- 
mon people. He said: "You can fool some of the 
people all the time, and all of the people some of the 
time, but you can't fool all the people all the time." 
This man now stood before audiences where his char- 
acter was known, and his personal worth spoke louder 
than the forceful and adroit oratory of Douglas. 

The Seven Joint Debates. 

Lincoln and Douglas were both candidates to repre- 
sent Illinois in the Senate of the United States. In 
June, Lincoln said: *'A house divided against itself 
cannot stand. I believe this government cannot en- 
dure half slave and half free. I do not expect the house 
to fall, but I expect it will cease to be divided. It will 
become all one thing or all the other." In July, 
Douglas attacked this doctrine in a speech at Chicago. 
After t^^o or three speeches by each candidate, Lin- 
coln challenged Douglas to a joint debate. Douglas 
accepted, and seven joint discussions were held in 
different parts of the state. The first was at Ottawa, 
Illinois, August 21, and the last at Alton, October 
15. They were held in the open air, usually in groves, 
and from five to ten thousand persons were present 
at each discussion. The single issue of slavery was 
presented by each orator. Lincoln asked Douglas if 
a territory could exclude slavery before such territory 
became a state. He knew if Douglas should say 
"No," and thus afiirm that slavery was fastened upon 
a territory in spite of its people, that the author and 
champion of "squatter sovereignty" could never be 



THE IRREPRES5JBLE CONFLICT. 9I 

Senator from Illinois. He knew if Douglas should say 
"Yes," and thus affirm that a territory could exclude 
slavery, that this would flatly contradict the Dred Scott 
decision, would offend the entire South, and that the 
ambitious statesman could never be President of the 
United States. Douglas saw the full force of the 
question. He answered that a territory could not di- 
rectly exclude slavery, but that it could, by unfriendly 
laws, so hamper the slave-holders' rights that slavery 
would be practically excluded. This halting answer 
cost Douglas the Presidency. Lincoln's question was 
a wedge between the northern and southern Demo- 
crats. 

The Election. 
In November, following the debate, the Republicans 
polled 125,430 and the Democrats 121,609 votes; the 
friends of Buchanan cast 5,071 ballots. Owing to a 
previous apportionment, the Democrats still controlled 
the legislature, and Douglas was soon re-elected to the 
Senate. 

The Effect on the Nation. 
But the moral victory remained with the new party. 
Tlie Illinois campaign had attracted the attention of 
the whole Union. Lincoln's speeches were published 
in the large cities of the North, and formed a kind of 
platform for the Republican party. Longfellow read 
his speeches with approval. Greeley came to his sup- 
port in the columns of the Tribune. Colfax and Chase 
spoke many times in Illinois. Douglas, besides meet- 
ing Lincoln in the seven debates, made a hundred 
speeches in the state. Both North and South knew 



92 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

that the campaign was a contest between freedom and 
slavery, and that freedom had won. 

John Brown's Raid: 1859. 

The Illinois campaign of 1858 aroused the con- 
science of the North, but the next year John Brown's 
raid deeply stirred the wrath of the entire South. 
Brown was a religious enthusiast, and his plan was 
wildly absurd; but his raid at Harper's Ferry, on 
October 17, sent an instant and profound alarm of a 
slave insurrection throughout the fifteen slave states. 

John Brown. 

John Brown was the sixth in descent from Peter 
Brown, who came over in the Mayflower. He was born 
in Connecticut in 1800, but with his parents came to 
Ohio five years later. After leaving his father's farm, 
he tried and failed in the business of a tanner, a sur- 
veyor, a farmer, and of a dealer in wool. In October, 
1855, he went to Kansas with his sons, and in the 
border warfare, he soon became the terror of the pro- 
slavery party. 

He was tall and slender, and impressed one by his 
serious manner. He was deeply religious, but he was 
a Puritan transplanted to the nineteenth century. He 
read the Old Testament constantly, and greatly ad- 
mired Oliver Cromwell. He had a strong will and 
undoubted courage. He believed that, "without the 
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." His 
education was limited, his faith dogmatic. He had a 
burning hatred for slavery, and his religious mind 
transformed all the great influences of freedom into 
a personal call to duty. 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 93 

His Plan. 

For twenty years, he had pondered over some way 
to free the slaves in the South; but out of his experi- 
ence in Kansas he had formed the plan to seize the 
arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and then call all the slaves 
to freedom. He expected that thousands of slaves 
would join him, and that northern men would flock 
to his defense. In 1857, he ordered from a Connecti- 
cut firm a thousand pikes, which two years later were 
used by him at Harper's Ferry. In the early part of 
1858, he was instructing twelve men in Iowa in mili- 
tary drill ; and a little later, he visited Frederick Doug- 
lass at his home in Rochester, New York, and ex- 
plained his plan in full. He then went to Boston, 
where he received some encouragement, returned to 
Iowa, collected his band and with them went east, 
by way of Chicago and Detroit to Chatham, in Can- 
ada. Here, he outlined his plan to a motley assembly 
of negroes and white persons — men, women, and boys 
— and was, by them, elected commander-in-chief. Dis- 
appointed in his hopes of aid from Boston, he was 
forced to put off his attack for nearly a year. But on 
July 4, 1859, Brown and his two sons rented a farm 
five miles from Harper's Ferry. Here, they quietly 
collected some rifles and tents, and assembled a small 
body of men and boys. All was done so well that 
no suspicion arose. 

Harper's Ferry. 
Harper's Ferry had a population of 5,000, and the 
government arsenal usually contained over 100,000 
stand of arms. At eight o'clock Sunday evening, Oc- 
tober 16, 1859, Brown, with eighteen men, left the 



94 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

farm and reached the town three hours later. They 
at once captured the arsenal and posted sentinels. They 
detained the midnight passenger train for three hours. 
In the morning, a thousand men in arms attacked 
Brown and his followers, and drove them into a brick 
engine house. In answer to telegrams. President 
Buchanan sent eighty marines, under Robert E. Lee, 
from the navy yard at Washington, and these arrived 
at Harper's Ferry on Monday evening. The next 
morning, on Brown's refusal to surrender, the engine 
house was stormed, and Brown, with six others, were 
made prisoners. Ten of the band were killed, and five 
escaped. Brown was soon tried, and sentenced to 
death. On the way to the gallows he kissed a negro 
child and spoke of the beauty of the landscape. In 
the presence of death, he had no fear and no regret. 

Indignation of the South. 

The wrath of the South rose high at Brown's at- 
tempt to free the slaves in a slave state. The North 
was accused of inciting, and then justifying the attack. 
The Republican party was held responsible for what 
the slave-holders thought was a lawless and criminal 
invasion of a peaceful state. The raid strengthened 
the enmity between the two sections, and hastened the 
Civil War. 

The Democratic National Convention: i860. 

Six months after John Brown's raid, the Demo- 
cratic national convention met at Charleston, South 
Carolina. The delegates from the fifteen slave states 
demanded that the platform should clearly set fortK 
the right to hold slaves in a territory, and the duty of 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 95 

Congress to protect slavery in such territory. The 
northern delegates refused to agree to this imperious 
demand. On such a platform, they knew that their 
candidate, Stephen A. Douglas, could never be elected. 
The convention, by a vote of 165 to 138, refused the 
demand to force slavery into the territories. The dele- 
gates from Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, 
Mississippi, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas at once 
withdrew from the convention. If they could not rule 
they would ruin the Democratic party. The remainder 
of the convention adjourned to meet again in Balti- 
more on June 18, i860. At the appointed time and 
place the delegates reassembled, and seven states — 
Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Delaware, Mary- 
land, Kentucky, and California — withdrew. The re- 
mainder of the convention nominated Douglas for 
President. The southern Democrats nominated John 
C. Breckenridge for President. This hopelessly di- 
vided the Democratic party, and broke the strongest 
bond between the North and South. 

The Republican National Convention: i860. 

The Republican national convention was held in 
Chicago on May 16, 1860. Four hundred and sixty- 
six delegates assembled in a large square building, 
called the Wigwam, and ten thousand spectators 
watched their proceedings. The noted lawyer, Wil- 
liam M. Evarts, headed the New York delegation. 
Horace Greeley was there as the representative of the 
distant state of Oregon. The interest was eager and 
even intense. The whole assembly was confident that 
the next President of the United States would there 
be nominated. Three candidates — Lincoln, Chase, and 



96 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

Seward — were before the convention. On the first 
ballot, Lincoln received 102 and Seward 175 votes. 
On the third ballot, Lincoln received 231 and Seward 
180 votes. Only three more would give Lincoln a 
majority of the convention. A hush fell upon the 
great assembly. Just then, Ohio gave four more votes 
to Lincoln, and assured his nomination. Enthusiasm 
now broke forth, and a cannon placed on the roof was 
fired off. At the close of the third ballot, Lincoln re- 
ceived 364 votes, and stood forth the standard-bearer 
of a young, vigorous, determined, and widely extended 
political party. 

The Union Party: i860. 
A Constitutional Union party met in convention at 
Baltimore, and nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, for 
President. It opposed both the Democrats and Re- 
publicans, and pledged a firm allegiance to "the Con- 
stitution of the country, the union of the states, and 
the enforcement of the laws." 

Four Candidates. 

Four candidates were now before the public. Lin- 
coln stood pledged against the extension of slavery. 
Breckinridge was pledged to extend it by law. Doug- 
las aimed to evade the issue by his doctrine of "squatter 
sovereignty." Bell hoped to avoid the issue by ignor- 
ing it. 

The Campaign. 

Enthusiasm and deep earnestness marked the cam- 
paign. Lincoln took almost no part in it, but he closely 
observed the great movement that was to place him at 
the head of the Nation. Seward's fame filled the North 
as he spoke in various places from New York to Min- 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 97 

nesota. Long torchlight processions, often numbering 
twenty thousand men, appeared for the first time. 
Lowell, Whittier, Holmes, William Cullen Bryant, 
and George W. Curtis rendered active aid to the Re- 
publican party. 

The Election. 
The election on November 6, i860, showed the 
wide separation of the North and the South. Lincoln 
carried every northern state except New Jersey, and 
even in this state he received four of the seven electoral 
votes. Breckenridge carried every southern state ex- 
cept Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri ; 
but even here three of these states voted for Bell, who 
was a slave-holder, and Missouri voted for Douglas, 
whose ability in Congress had ever been on the side 
of slavery. Lincoln received 1,866,452; Douglas, 
1.375. 157; Breckinridge, 847,953, ^^d Bell, 590,631 
votes. 

Growth of Secession Sentiment. 

Since 1850, the leading men of the South had deter- 
mined on secession if they could not maintain with the 
North equal power in the Union. It seemed to them 
that the North had gained in every contest over slav- 
ery. In 1820, their right to hold slaves had been abol- 
ished over a vast region north and w^est of Missouri, 
They had brought on the Mexican war to extend 
slavery, and all but Texas was practically free terri- 
tory. They had forced through Congress a fugitive 
slave law, and it could not be enforced. They had 
secured the law to establish slavery in Kansas, and 
yet free men of the North had actual possession of 
the territory. They had gained from the Supreme 



98 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

Court a decision which might serve as a rock against 
the waves of pubHc opinion, and it had been sub- 
merged. Every victory had turned to defeat. When 
Lincoln was elected, they resolved on independence 
from a power they could not control. 

A Great Slave Republic. 

For years the idea of a great slave republic had been 
rising in the southern mind. By the war with Mexico, 
the leaders had hoped to carry slavery clear through to 
the Pacific. Later on, they intended to conquer Mex- 
ico, and spread slavery throughout its whole extent. 
They stood ready at any time to declare war against 
Spain, and take Cuba by force. With such vantage 
ground, it would be easy to gain and hold northern 
South America. Around the Gulf of Mexico would 
then stand a huge slave empire, able to withstand the 
North, and secure the existence of slavery for the next 
century. 

Secession of South Carolina. 

The South resolved on secession if Lincoln should 
be elected. The legislature of South Carolina remained 
in session till after November 6 to hear the result of 
the election. When the news was flashed over the 
wires that Lincoln would be the next President, the 
legislature voted money for arms and called a state 
convention. On December 18, i860, this body met in 
Charleston amid rejoicing and deep feeling. Many 
gray-haired men were present. They soon passed the 
Ordinance of Secession : "We, the people of the state 
of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare 
and ordain . . . that the union now subsisting 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 99 

between South Carolina and other states under the 
name of The United States of America' is hereby dis- 
solved." As the last word was read by an aged slave- 
holder, the convention broke into cheers, the crowd 
outside sent up a great shout, church bells were rung, 
and a cannon sent forth its ominous note. 

Signing the Ordinance of Secession. 
In the evening, the members of the convention en- 
tered Institute Hall in solemn procession for the pur- 
pose of formally signing the Ordinance of Secession. 
The document was first read, and then a white-haired 
minister asked God's blessing on the great step taken. 
It took two hours for all the members to sign the act 
of separation, and many recalled the famous scene of 
1776 in Independence Hall. Crowds of ladies in the 
galleries graced the occasion. Military companies 
marched through the streets, huge bonfires lighted up 
many squares, and fireworks flashed and glittered in 
the darkness. 

An Independent Nation. 

South Carolina at once took measures to show that 
she was a free and independent nation. The governor 
organized a cabinet, a new flag was adopted, and the 
Charleston papers published news from the United 
States under the heading, "Foreign News." Commis- 
sioners were soon sent to Washington to secure from 
the government of the United States the surrender of 
all forts and public buildings in the state of South 
Carolina. 

Six More States Secede. 

On January 5, 1861, the Senators from Mississippi, 



100 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas met 
in Washington, and resolved on secession, and by Feb- 
ruary I every one of these six states had formally with- 
drawn from the Union. As each state seceded, its 
Senators and Representatives in Congress left Wash- 
ington for the South. As a rule, they made no speeches 
and presented no list of grievances in breaking the 
unity and grandeur of the nation. 

The Confederate States of America. 
On February 4, forty-two delegates, representing 
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisi- 
ana, and Florida, met in the State House at Montgom- 
ery, Alabama, adopted a temporary government, and 
elected Jefferson Davis President, and Alexander H. 
Stephens Vice-President. These officers were to serve 
until a prmanent constitution was adopted. On Feb- 
ruary 18, President Davis was inaugurated in the 
presence of a large assemblage. He then said : "Our 
new government is founded upon . . . the 
great truth that the negro is not equal to the white 
man." On March 11, a permanent constitution was 
adopted by seven states. 

A Peace Congress. 

But a strong effort was now made to save the great 
Union. A Peace Congress of one hundred and thirty- 
three commissioners from twenty-one states met in 
Washington, on February 4, and remained in session 
for twenty-three days. It advocated, "the extension of 
the Missouri compromise line to the Pacific," and pay- 
ment from the national "treasury for all fugitive slaves 
rescued after arrest." 



the irrepressible conflict, loi 

Decision at the South. 

While the North waited and did nothing, all at the 
South was decision and activity. As each state se- 
ceded it took possession of the postoffices, customs- 
houses and forts within its borders. Arms were pur- 
chased, and large forces of men were instructed in 
military drill. Prominent men in the army, navy, and 
civil service of the United States were constantly re- 
signing to join the South. 

Division at the North. 

President Buchanan declared that secession was 
illegal, but that the government of the United States 
had no power to force a state back into the Union. 
To destroy the Union was illegal, but to preserve it 
was unconstitutional. The President used his position 
to impress upon the country that the North was wrong 
and that the South was right. The New York Trib- 
une stated : "If the cotton states shall decide that they 
can do better out of the Union than in it, we insist on 
letting them go in peace." Other leading papers at 
the North declared for some peaceful settlement of all 
questions in dispute. On January 14, 1861, the legis- 
lature of Ohio asked the other states to repeal their 
personal liberty laws, and in three months Rhode 
Island, Vermont, and Massachusetts had complied 
with the request. The North quailed in the presence 
of actual disunion. 

Lincoln's Journey to Washington: 1861. 

In the midst of this uncertainty, all eyes turned to 
the coming President. Early on Monday morning, 



102 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

February ii, 1861, Lincoln went from his home to 
the small station in Springfield to take the train for 
the East. More than a thousand of his friends and 
neighbors had gathered there for a last farewell. In 
silent emotion, he grasped the hands of those who had 
known and believed in him. His progress eastward 
was one continued ovation. At Indianapolis, thirty- 
three cannon shots greeted the arrival of his train. 
Governor Morton met him at the station in a carriage 
drawn by four white horses, and they drove through 
the city followed by the legislature and other state 
officers. In Cincinnati, he met an immense crowd, 
and then went northeast to Columbus, where he ad- 
dressed the legislature in the capitol. From this city 
he bore east and north to Pittsburg, and then north- 
west to Cleveland. Going east through Buffalo to 
Albany, he was amazed at the vast crowds that met 
him in the Empire State. At Troy, he spoke to fifteen 
thousand people, and a quarter of a million persons 
saw him enter the streets of New York. In Phila- 
delphia, the vast assemblage surpassed any that he 
had seen. On February 22, he spoke in Independence 
Hall. Up to this time, his journey had been deter- 
mined by the invitations of cities and legislatures. 
But now, no word of hospitality came from Maryland, 
through which he must pass. On the contrary, he 
received word from many sources that his life would 
be in danger in Baltim.ore. He at once took a night 
train, and in disguise passed through the hostile state, 
and appeared in Washington the next morning. 

Lincoln's Inauguration. 
On March 4, Lincoln was inaugurated, guarded 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 103 

with great care. General Scott placed the whole city 
under military guard, and received reports from his 
troops every fifteen minutes. The line of procession 
was along Pennsylvania avenue from the White House 
to the Capitol. Cavalry guarded all the side streets, 
and sharpshooters lined the roofs along Pennsylvania 
avenue, with instructions to watch the windows on the 
opposite side of the street. Dense masses of mounted 
soldiers guarded Lincoln in the center of the street. 
The same care was taken on his return to the White 
House. 

The Inaugural Address. 

On his way from Springfield to Washington, Lin- 
coln had carefully avoided any declaration of his 
policy. He wished first of all to be peacefully inau- 
gurated. He said : "Let us do one thing at a time, 
and the big things first." But when he stood at the 
east front of the Capitol, he knew that responsibility 
had come and that his words would be flashed to every 
part of the nation. He declared he would maintain the 
Union, and he threw the whole responsibility for war 
upon the South. 

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 
and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 
The government will not assail you. You can have 
no conflict, without yourselves being the aggressors. 
You can have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy 
the government, while I shall have the most solemn 
one to preserve, protect and defend it. I am loatli to 
close. We are not enemies, but friends. Though 
passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds 
of affection." 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CIVIL WAR. 

(1861-1865.) 

At last, the North faced the South with a practical 
declaration of war. The long conflict of ideas was 
about to end, and the conflict of force to begin. It will 
throw light on the great civil war which followed to 
compare the resources of the two sections, and for this 
purpose the census of i860 is invaluable. For greater 
clearness, round numbers will be given, and in each 
comparison the seventeen free states will be contrasted 
with the eleven slave states which seceded. 

Number of States, Area, and Population. 

From Maine to Kansas, and from New Jersey to 
Minnesota, seventeen free states formed a united and 
powerful nation. It had an area of over 600,000 
square miles and a population of 19,000,000. The 
eleven "Confederate States of America," extending 
from Virginia to Texas, formed another thoroughly 
compact nation, with an area of more than 700,000 
square miles, and a population of 9,000,000. The 
war, in reality, was between two distinct and inde- 
pendent nations. The four slave states — Delaware, 
Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri — furnished men 
and supplies to both sides. The distant and thinly 

104 



THE CIVIL WAR. I05 

inhabited states of California and Oregon gave little 
aid to the North. 

Resources and Industries. 
The North had great resources in its varied indus- 
tries, while the South relied mainly on the one occupa- 
tion of farming. The seventeen free states had more 
than 100,000 manufacturing establishments worth 
more than $800,000,000, and employing more than 
1,000,000 persons; the eleven slave states had 20,000 
manufacturing establishments of all kinds, worth less 
than $100,000,000, and employing 110,000 persons. 
The North had twice as many miles of railways, and 
five times the ocean tonnage. Even in agriculture the 
northern farmers owned $4,800,000,000 worth of farm 
lands, while the southern planters had only $1,800,- 
000,000 in such property. 

' Intellectual Progress. 

The North led in intellectual, as well as in material 
resources. It had 1,200 printing establishments to 
150 in the South. North of Mason and Dixon's line 
and the Ohio river there were 250 dailies and 1,800 
weekly newspapers^ while in the eleven slave states 
there were only 66 dailies and 600 weekly newspapers. 
The North had more than 6,000 public libraries, circu- 
lating more than 5,000,000 volumes, while the South 
had half as many libraries, sending out less than 
2,000,000 volumes. Two million seven hundred thou- 
sand pupils attended the public schools in the North, 
to 580,000 in the South. From 1790 to 1849, the 
North took out 16,514 patents for inventions, while 
the South had only 2,202 such patents. 



i06 freedom vs. slavery. 

Forts in the South. 

As fast as the states seceded, they took possession 
of the forts and arsenals within their borders, and in 
the early months of 1861 there remained to the Union 
only three forts : Fortress Monroe, in Virginia ; Fort 
Sumter, in South Carolina, and the defenses at Key 
West, Florida. In January, President Buchanan or- 
dered the vessel, the Star of the West, to take supplies 
to Fort Sumter. As this vessel was entering the har- 
bor on January 9, 1861, she was fired on by a Con- 
federate battery, and compelled to return to New 
York. This was the first overt act of war; but Presi- 
dent Buchanan did nothing. 

Attack on Fort Sumter. 

In April, the Confederates resolved to capture Fort 
Sumter. This fort stood in the center of the harbor, 
commanding its entrance, and contained forty-eight 
cannons, hundreds of barrels of powder, and many 
small arms. It was held by Major Anderson and 127 
men. The Confederates erected strong land batteries 
within reach of the fort. On Major Anderson's re- 
fusal to surrender the place, they opened fire at half 
past four in the morning of April 12, 1861. Nineteen 
batteries hurled shot and shell against the solid walls. 
The attack was begun on Friday morning, and con- 
tinued for thirty-four hours. On Saturday, at eleven 
o'clock in the forenoon, the fort was on fire, and 
through the dense masses of black smoke the flames 
shot upward. A white flag soon rose above the walls, 
and the fort was formally surrendered. Major Ander- 
son and his men were allowed to leave for the North, 



the civil war. io7 

Result. 
The attack on Fort Sumter marked an epoch. It 
ended a long conflict of ideas, and ushered in a con- 
flict of force. It began the final struggle between free- 
dom and slavery. The lurid and sinister glare from 
those guns on that eventful Friday morning, and the 
roar from their iron throats, should have sent a thrill 
of hope and joy to 4.000,000 slaves. 

Opening of the War. 
The news of the surrender was flashed over the 
Union. On April 15, Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 
troops to put down the rebellion. Governors of states 
at once loyally responded, and in forty-eight hours a 
Massachusetts regiment was on board a train bound 
for Washington. The Stars and Stripes decorated 
the homes of millions at the North. Patriotic speeches 
were made from the platform and pulpit. The news- 
papers were filled with the news of preparation. Can- 
nons were being cast in the great foundries, and new 
foundries were being built. 

A Vision of the War. 

"The past, as it were, rises before me like a dream. 
Again we are in the great struggle for national life. We 
hear the sound of preparation — the music of the boister- 
ous drums — the silver voices of heroic bugles. We see 
thousands of assemblages, and hear the appeals of ora- 
tors; we see the pale cheeks of women, and the flushed 
faces of men ; and in those assemblages we see all the 
dead whose dust we have covered with flowers. We 
lose sight of them no more. We are with them when 
they enlist in the great army of freedom. We see them 
part with those they love. Some are walking for the 
last time in quiet, woody places with the maidens they 
adore. We hear the whisperings and the sweet vows 
of eternal love as they lingeringly part forever. Others 



i08 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

are bending over cradles kissing babes that are asleep. 
Some are receiving the blessings of old men. Some are 
parting with mothers, who hold them and press them 
to their hearts again and again, and say nothing; and 
some are talking with wives, and endeavoring with brave 
words spoken in the old tones to drive away the awful 
fear. We see them part. We see the wife standing in 
the door with the babe in her arms — standing in the sun- 
light sobbing — at the turn of the road a hand waves — 
she answers by holding high in her loving hands the 
child. He is gone, and forever. 

"We see them all as they march proudly away under 
the flaunting flags, keeping time to the wild, grand music 
of war — marching down the streets of the great cities — ■ 
through the towns and across the prairies — down to the 
fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right. 

"We go with them, one and all. We are by their 
side on all the gory fields, in all the hospitals of pain — 
on all the weary marches. We stand guard with them 
in the wild storm and under the quiet stars. We are 
with them in ravines running with blood — in the fur- 
rows of old fields. We are with them between contend- 
ing hosts, unable to move, wild with thirst, the life ebb- 
ing slowly away among the withered leaves. We see 
them pierced by balls and torn with shells, in the trenches 
of forts, and in the whirlwind of the charge, where men 
become iron, with nerves of steel. 

"We are with them in the prisons of hatred and fam- 
ine, but human speech can never tell what they endured. 

"We are at home when the news comes that they are 
dead. We see the maiden in the shadow of her sorrow. 
We see the silvered head of the old man bowed with 
the last grief. 

"The past rises before us, and we see four millions of 
human beings goverened by the lash — 'we see them bound 
hand and foot — we hear the strokes of cruel whips — we 
see the hounds tracking women through tangled swamps. 
We see babes sold from the breasts of mothers. Cruelty 
unspeakable ! Outrage infinite ! 

"Four million bodies in chains — four million souls in 
fetters. All the sacred relations of wife, mother, father, 
and child trampled beneath the brutal feet of might. 



THE CIVIL WAR. IO9 

And all this was done under our own beautiful banner 
of the free. 

"The past rises before us. We hear the roar and 
shriek of the bursting shell. The broken fetters fall. 
There, heroes died. We look. Instead of slaves we see 
men and women and children. The wand of progress 
touches the auction block, the slave-pen, and the whip- 
ping-post, and we see homes and firesides, and school- 
houses and books, and where all was want and crime, 
and cruelty and fear, we see the faces of the free. 

"These heroes are dead. They died for liberty — they 
died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land 
they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, 
under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful 
willows, the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the 
shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or 
storm, each in the windowless palace of rest. Earth may 
run red with other wars — they are at peace. In the 
midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the 
serenitv of death. I have one sentiment for the soldiers 
living and dead — cheers for the living and tears for the 
dead." 

Area of the War. 

Seventeen free states now resolutely determined to 
maintain the Union and to put down the rebellion in 
the eleven slave states. The war spread over an area 
of 800,000 square miles. It lasted four years, and 
held the attention of the civilized world. Its two 
great issues were — the liberty of the slaves, and the 
existence of republican government. 

Union and Confederate Armies. 

During the war, the North enrolled in its armies 
2,850,000, and the South 1,100,000 soldiers. Of these 
4,000,000 men, less than one-half were in actual ser- 
vice at one time. The war opened wnth a Union army 
of 16,000, and the Confederacy had not a single sol- 



no FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

dier. At the dose of the war, the North had enrolled 
1,000,516 soldiers, and the South only 175,000. 

Battles and Loss of Life. 

The total number of engagements of all kinds in the 
four years was 2,265. There were 330 battles where 
the Union loss in killed, wounded and missing was 
above 100. Seven hundred thousand soldiers died 
for the Union or for the Confederacy. 

Cost of the War. 

When Fort Sumter was surrendered, the debt of the 
United States was about $80,000,000. When Lee sur- 
rendered it was $2,800,000,000. During the last three 
years of the war, the Federal government collected 
$780,000,000 in taxes, sold $1,100,000,000 worth of 
bonds, and issued in the form of notes and paper 
money, $1,000,000,000. But the total cost of the 
Civil War will not be known until the Confederate 
outlay can be given, the destruction of property on 
both sides ascertained, and the loss in labor of 4,000,- 
000 soldiers is estimated with some accuracy. 

The War for the Union. 

At first, the war was to save the Union and not to 
free the slaves. In February, 1861, the House of Rep- 
resentatives unanimously passed a resolution declar- 
ing that Congress had no power to touch slavery in 
the slave states. When Lincoln was first inaugurated, 
he expressly disclaimed any intention to interfere with 
slavery where it then existed. The North would not 
then support an abolition war. The two giant forces 
of freedom and of slavery had come into deadly con- 



THE CIVIL WAR. Ill 

flict, and one was trying to maintain a legal union 
with its natural enemy. 

The War and Slavery. 
But as the great war went on, its real cause thrust 
itself into all the military operations. The slave might, 
be a laborer or soldier in the Union army. He was 
such in the Confederate army. He labored on the 
plantation, while his master, on the battlefield, fought 
to make slavery eternal. The patient bondman faith- 
fully and lovingly cared for the wife and children of 
the man who fought to destroy the sacredness and 
beauty of the lowly home. It was said that a single 
firebrand thrown into a Southern home would have 
disbanded the Confederate armies; and not one was 
thrown. This speaks eloquently for master and slave, 
but it can never justify a system that produced a con- 
stant succession of outrages. By their devotion, the 
slaves defended slavery. They furnished a large army 
of laborers, who released an equal number of white 
men for active military operations. 

Lincoln's Two Objects. 
As the war went on, the North was compelled to 
recognize slavery as a fact of great military import- 
ance. In July, 1862, Congress confiscated the slaves 
of all persons in rebellion against the United States. 
This law alone would have freed nearly half of the 
slaves. At once the cry of an "Abolition War" went 
up at the North, and Lincoln appealed to the public 
In a remarkable letter to Greeley. 'If I could save the 
Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; if I 
could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; 
and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others 



112 FREEDOM VS* SLAVERY, 

alone, I would do it." Lincoln seems to have had two 
distinct policies at this time. Deep in his heart lay 
an abiding love of justice, and he wished that this 
great war should not end without removing a great 
wrong. Years before, he had seen a young girl sold 
at auction in New Orleans, and, moved by strong emo- 
tion, he then said: "If I ever get a chance to hit 
slavery, I'll hit it hard." 

He was now in a position to strike slavery with all 
the energy of the North, and to put the South in 
defense of the wrong before the civilized world. 

But he knew that a war for abolition alone would 
not be supported. Hence, he emphasized the military 
necessity of emancipation. He sincerely believed in 
the necessity, but an almost divine justice and com- 
passion controlled his action. 

Emancipation Proclamation. 

In September, 1862, Lincoln thought the time for 
action had come. The war had been in progress a year 
and a half, and the policy of the administration would 
soon be considered in the November elections. A great 
battle had just driven a southern army from northern 
soil. Lincoln determined to let the North choose be- 
tween freedom and slavery. 

On September 22, 1862, he issued a proclamation 
declaring, "That on the first day of January, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state, 
or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall 
then be in rebellion against the United States, shall 
be then, thenceforward, and forever free." On the 
day appointed he issued the famous emancipation proc- 



THE CIVIL WAR. 1 13 

lamation which made "Liberty and Union, one and 
inseparable." 

A War for Union and Freedom. 

From this time on, the Union soldiers were fighting 
to destroy slavery as well as to save the Union. Every 
battle was now a blow for freedom, and every death a 
sacrifice, nobly rendered, to make the bondman free. 
At the close of the war the victorious North forced 
into the Constitution the thirteenth amendment: 
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as 
a punishment for crimes whereof the party shall have 
been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States 
or any place subject to their jurisdiction." >^ 

The Navy in i860. 

When the war began, the North had only thirteen 
vessels ready for immediate service. The remaining 
seventy-seven were either disabled or thousands of 
miles away on distant seas. 

The South had not a single sailor or vessel of war. 
It had only three rolling mills, no body of skilled me- 
chanics, and no great gun factories or machine shops. 
But a single cotton crop might purchase a navy, and 
England would quickly buy the cotton and gladly sell 
the ships, and with these ships the South might sweep 
the northern commerce from the ocean. 

Building of the Navy. 

It was a clear military necessity for the North to 
have at least six hundred vessels to blockade the entire 
Confederacy, and to capture the forts and ports along 
its 1,900 miles of coast. 



114 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY, 

To effect this great object, the government at once 
began to add to the navy in five ways : 

1. Everything afloat that could be used in the ser- 
vice was bought. By July i, 1861, twelve steamers 
were added to the service. 

2. Contracts were at once made with private parties 
to construct small but heavily-armored screw gunboats. 
Some of these w^ere afloat in four months, and were 
called "ninety-day gunboats." 

3. The government began the construction of 
sloops-of-war, and at the close of 1861, fourteen were 
in the service. 

4. The government built very many paddle-wheel 
steamers for use on the rivers and in shallow chan- 
nels. * 

5. The government constructed ironclad war ves- 
sels. 

As fast as these vessels were made they were sent 
along the coast to stop all trade with the South. Old 
vessels loaded with stone were sunk at the narrowest 
entrances to ports. Gunboats were stationed in or 
near the harbor, ready to capture or destroy any vessel 
attempting to pass. 

An EiFFECTivE Blockade. 

This blockade was very effective. During the year 
before the war, the South had sent 4,500,000 bales of 
cotton to Eiurope; but during the next year not over 
50,000 bales passed the blockade. The price of cotton 
fell to eight cents a pound in the South and rose to fifty 
cents a pound in England. The prices of manufactured 
articles of all kinds rapidly rose in the Confederacy. 
During the war, the navy captured over 1,100 prizes, 



THE CIVIL WAR. II5 

worth $31,000,000, but its great work lay in destroy- 
ing the foreign trade of the South.. 

Southern Ports. 

A cargo of manufactured articles from England 
soon commanded an extraordinary amount of cotton 
in the South, and offered the strongest inducement to 
break the blockade. But as vessels could not enter 
the southern ports direct from Europe, it was neces- 
sary to have depots of supplies near the South. Four 
places — Nassau, Bermuda, Havana, and Matamoras 
— served as stations for the trade. The chief southern 
ports were Savannah, Charleston, and Wilmington. 
A short run of five or six hundred miles connected 
these cities with Nassau. 

Blockade Runners. 

To carry on this short line trade, it became necessary 
to have special vessels, known as blockade-runners. 
These were long, sharp-pointed, narrow side-wheel 
steamers. The hulls were painted in a dull gray color 
and rose but a few feet above the water. Anthracite 
coal was used to avoid much smoke, and the smoke- 
stacks rose but little above the decks. The vessels 
were constructed for speed, invisibility, and stowage. 
On a dark night and with a high tide, these vessels 
would run past the blockade, change cargoes, return 
to Nassau and reship the cotton to Europe. In four 
years, 1,500 blockade runners were made prizes or 
sunk, and the trade was gradually diminished. 

English Aristocracy and the Civil War. 
A powerful party in England early showed sympa- 



Il6 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

thy for the South. The strength of this party was 
the aristocracy, and its leader was the Prime Minister, 
Lord John Russell. During the early part of the war, 
nearly all the great newspapers, the leading maga- 
zines, and the interviews, and speeches of prominent 
men openly expressed sympathy for the South, and 
declared that the Union was destroyed. Sir Edward 
Bulwer Lytton predicted that four republics would 
spring forth from the ruins of the Union. Lord John 
Russell said, "The struggle is on the one side for em- 
pire, and on the other for power.' Edward A. Free- 
man, the distinguished historian, had printed on the 
title page of one of his histories his belief in the "dis- 
ruption of the United States." Gladstone said, "The 
Federal government can never succeed in putting down 
the rebellion." 

English Government and the War. 
Out of this public sentiment, grew the hostile action 
of the English government. In February, Lord John 
Russell wrote to Lord Lyons in Washington that the 
United States had "sought for quarrels" with Eng- 
land, but that "British forbearance springs from the 
consciousness of strength and not from the timidity 
of weakness." In March, a motion to recognize the 
independence of the Confederacy was made in Parlia- 
ment. On May 6, Lord John Russell said in the 
House of Commons that the "Southern Confederacy 
of America . . . must be treated as a belliger- 
ent." On May 13, Charles Francis Adams, the United 
States Minister to England, landed at Liverpool; and 
on the very same day, as if to show discourtesy, Eng- 
land's proclamation of neutrality was issued. In July, 



THE CIVIL WAR. 11/ 

Lord John Russell, through Lord Lyons at Washing- 
ton, directed Mr. Bunch, a British consul at Charles- 
ton, to open negotiations with the Confederate govern- 
ment. The government at Washington demanded the 
recall of Mr. Bunch for this hostile movement, but 
England assumed full responsibility for the act and 
refused the demand. 

Capture of Mason and Slidell. 

In the autumn of 1861, the Confederate government 
appointed James Murray Mason, of Virginia, and 
John Slidell, of Louisiana, ministers respectively to 
England and France. These officers were authorized 
to secure the full recognition of the Confederacy, to 
get loans and military supplies for the South, to make 
treaties, and to defeat the Union diplomacy. On the 
dark and stormy night of October 12, the ministers 
with their two secretaries left Charleston for Nassau. 
From thence, they went to Cardenas, Cuba, and then 
overland to Havana. From this neutral port, they 
took passage on the Trent, a British mail steamer and 
a neutral vessel bound for a neutral port. They were 
clearly beyond the reach of legal capture. But on 
November 8, Captain Wilkes, of the United States 
man-of-war San Jacinto, captured the two ministers 
and their secretaries, and took them as prisoners to 
Fort Warren, Boston. 

Effect in the North. 

The whole North rejoiced at the capture. A banquet 

in honor of Captain Wilkes was given in Boston. On 

December 2, Congress gave him a vote of thanks. 

But Lincoln said, "I fear the traitors will prove to be 



Il8 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

white elephants. We must stick to American princi- 
ples concerning the rights of neutrals. We fought 
Great Britain for insisting, by theory and practice, on 
the right to do precisely what Captain Wilkes has 
done." 

England Demands Release and Apology. 

Two days after the news of the capture was re- 
ceived, the English cabinet met and demanded the im- 
mediate release of the -four men, and that a suitable 
apology should be rendered to the English govern- 
ment. Troops and supplies were at once ordered to 
Canada to enforce the demand. This was that "Brit- 
ish forbearance that springs from the consciousness 
of strength," rather than a deliberate plan to destroy 
the great nation that for three-fourths of a century 
had risen with such power and splendor, and that was 
now struggling for its very life. 

The prisoners were released, and Gladstone taunted 
the North for its wavering policy. Unfortunately, 
Seward returned the prisoners on the ground that 
they had not been formally adjudged in a prize court. 
This was nothing but the old right of search where 
a "British man-of-war had been made a floating judg- 
ment seat six thousand times." The plain fact v^^as, 
that the Trent was a neutral vessel, from a neutral 
port to a neutral port, and was, by international law, 
a part of the territory of the nation to which she be- 
longed. 

England Violates Neutrality. 

But the English government permitted on its own 
soil open hostility to the Union. It allowed the Con- 



THE CIVIL WAR. II9 

federacy to establish on English soil an active naval 
department. There, its vessels were built, repaired, 
armed, commissioned, and sent forth to destroy the 
merchant vessels of the nation with which England 
was at peace. Years later, England paid $15,500,000 
in gold for her hostility to a friendly nation. 

Two Parties in England. 

There w^ere two parties in England. The landed 
aristocracy and their followers had no sympathy with 
republican governments; but the common people of 
England were the natural allies of the North, and 
their noblest representative was John Bright. This 
eloquent and able statesman deserves all honor in 
America. In the darkest hour of the Union, he fore- 
told its final triumph, and eloquently portrayed its 
restoration over a vast domain wnth "one people and 
one language and one law and one faith, and over all 
that wide continent the homes of freedom." The Civil 
War produced the "Cotton Famine" in England, and 
500,000 operatives, thrown out of employment, were, 
at one time, receiving poor relief. This vast industrial 
army, under the stress of poverty, denied its sympa- 
thy to a slave republic. The common people of Eng- 
land felt that the North was fighting for free labor. 

The South in 1865. 

At the opening of 1865, the situation at the South 
was desperate. The Union navy had utterly destroyed 
her foreign trade, and stood guard at every sea port. 
Sheridan, for the last time, was laying waste the beau- 
tiful valley of the Shenandoah. Sherman had burned 
the factories and machine shops of the manufacturing 



120 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

center of the South, had made a wide swath of deso- 
lation to the sea, and now, destroying as he advanced, 
was marching North to join Grant at Richmond. 
Grant's army presented a soHd front of iron and steel 
to Lee's small army behind the defenses around Rich- 
mond. The Confederate troops lacked food and sup- 
plies of all kinds. The railroads were not repaired, 
the plantations were neglected, the money was worth- 
less, desertions from the army were common, and the 
prisons were filled with Union soldiers. 

Preparations to Leave Richmond. 

On Sunday, April 2, 1865, all was in confusion in 
the city. President Davis was at church when he re- 
ceived news of Grant's attack. He at once left the 
service, called a cabinet meeting, and decided that all 
the government archives should be taken out of the 
city. The state legislature and city council also met 
and took measures for departure. The arsenal and 
war vessels were now destroyed by tremendous ex- 
plosions, and large stores of cotton and tobacco were 
set on fire to prevent capture by the enemy. All the 
liquor was ordered destroyed, but a mob gave free 
rein to disorder and crime. A desperate band of con- 
victs set fire to the state prison, and in their striped 
clothes went yelling and leaping through the streets. 
One Lumkin had in his slave-trader's jail some fifty 
slaves — men, women, and children. These he chained 
together and got ready to leave the city. 

The City Taken. 

On Monday, order was restored. A colored regi- 
ment, under the command of a grandson of John 



THE CIVIL WAR. 121 

Quincy Adams, entered the city. They were regarded 
with perfect horror by the white people, and met with 
transports of delight by the colored population. The 
black soldiers, in their bright uniforms, rose in their 
stirrups, and waved their swords to greet the cheers 
of their colored brethren. 

Lincoln in Richmond. 

On Tuesday, Lincoln entered Richmond. Accom- 
panied by his son Tad and a small guard, and led by a 
colored man as a guide, he walked a mile and a half to 
the main part of the city. Crowds of colored people 
looked with wonder, joy, and reverence on the man 
of whom they had heard so much. One white-haired 
negro wearing a crownless hat, without a coat, and in 
tattered clothes, half knelt before the President, and 
said, "May de good Lord bless and keep you safe, Mars 
Linkum." Lincoln raised his hat and his eyes filled 
with tears. 

Lee's Surrender. 

On April 3, 1865, Lee evacuated Richmond. It 
was a beautiful spring morning. Flowers grew by 
the wayside. Many peach trees along the way were 
in bloom. The air was pure and clear, and the pale 
green leaves gave a delicate color and charm to the 
landscape. 

Grant pushed his troops after the retreating Con- 
federates. Sheridan, by rapid marching, got directly 
in front of Lee's line of retreat. On April 9, Lee sur- 
rendered his whole army at Appomattox Court House, 
and the war was ended. 



122 freedom vs. slavery. 

Assassination of Lincoln. 

On the President's return to Washington, he at- 
tended Ford's theatre on the evening of April 14, 
1865. John Wilkes Booth, an actor, ambitious for 
fam.e, noiselessly opened the door at the rear of the 
box where Lincoln sat. He had a dagger in one hand 
and a pistol in the other. He sent a bullet through 
Lincoln's brain, jumped from the box to the stage, 
cried to the audience "Sic Semper Tyrannis," ran 
quickly across the stage, escaped through a rear door, 
mounted a horse in readiness, and fled in the darkness 
from the city. 

The assassin had done sure work. Lincoln moved 
but slightly. His eyes closed, his head drooped for- 
ward, and he became unconscious. He was at once 
taken across the street to a room, and physicians were 
summoned. Members of the Cabinet watched at the 
bedside during the night. Senator Sumner was there, 
his great frame shaken by sobs. Lincoln died the next 
morning a little after seven. 

Funeral Services. 
Funeral services were held in the East Room of the 
White House, and then the cortege began its long 
journey over the same route taken by Lincoln on his 
way to Washington four years before. As the funeral 
car moved along Pennsylvania avenue, it was preceded 
by a detachment of colored soldiers, and followed by 
the ministers of foreign nations, judges of the Su- 
preme Court, members of Congress, and chief officers 
of the government. Bells tolled and minute guns 
sounded from the distant fortifications. The body 
lay in state for two days in the rotunda of the Capitol. 



THE CIVIL WAR. I23 

The tall columns and massive dome were draped in 
black. At Philadelphia, a great concourse in Inde- 
pendence Hall looked on the face of the man who, 
four years before, in that place, had said, "Sooner 
than surrender these principles I would be assassinated 
on this spot." An immense multitude saw the remains 
in the City Hall of New York. In that city, a solemn 
funeral hymn was rendered at midnight by German 
musical societies. As the funeral train went along 
the Hudson, dirges and hymns were sung, and crowds 
stood uncovered as the body w^as borne to its distant 
resting place. While he lay in state in the Capitol at 
Albany, his assassin stood at bay in a burning barn 
and was shot by a Union soldier. The long journey 
westward was one continued tribute of grief and affec- 
tion. At the grave, his second inaugural address was 
read, and its closing words marked well the trend of 
his life and character: "With malice toward none, 
with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as 
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish 
the work we are in." 

The Grand Review. 

In May, the arniies under Grant and Sherman were 
assembled in Washington for a final and grand review\ 
A large reviewing stand, finely decorated with flowers, 
evergreens and flags, was erected near the White 
House, and on this President Johnson, General Grant, 
the members of the Cabinet and other distinguished 
men assembled to honor the two great armies of the 
Union. For days before, every train had brought 
crowds of people into the city, and on the morning of 
the review, Pennsylvania avenue, on both sides, was 



124 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

lined with a dense mass of humanity from the Capitol 
to the White House. An hour before the troops be- 
gan to march, the school children of the city, bearing 
flowers for the soldiers, took position at the Capitol. 
For two days, the great host, forming a column thirty 
miles in length, marched along the historic a.venue. 
It was a great army that knew what war meant, and 
that had faced death on many battlefields. Their uni- 
forms were worn and torn by hard service. Many 
flags had been cut into shreds by shot and sliell. Mem- 
ories of the fallen arose from the stern pageant, as 
the great army began its last march for distajit homes 
and friends. 



CHAPTER VI. 

INTERPRETATION OF CURRENT EVENTS. 

Economic Groups. 

The long conflict of the two sections was one of 
prejudice and recrimination. In the heat of that con- 
flict strong emotions colored and distorted every event. 
Every page of the record bears the impress of passion ; 
and from this record have been written partisan his- 
tories. As the period of commotion recedes into the 
fixed past, we can better determine its Hmits and 
measure its forces. Far removed from the passion 
of the past one can now critically examine the record 
to determine the underlying cause of the hostility be- 
tween the North and the South. This method of in- 
terpretation brings out clearly four important facts : 

1. Two distinct economic groups appeared long 
before the Revolution and continued to the Civil War. 
These groups had opposing systems of labor and capi- 
tal and had different climate and products. Each 
was, in fact, from the standpoint of industries and 
interests, a distinct nation. 

Economic Interests Control. 

2. Each group sought to protect or advance its 
own interests. Both sought to control the common 

125 



126 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

government and the common territory. Each de- 
manded the sacrifice of the material interests of the 
other. By tariff laws, the North exploited the South; 
and the slaveholder exploited the slave. Business in- 
terests controlled in each case. 

Strength of a Group. 

3. The stronger group triumphed. The wealth 
of the North, its varied industries, its skilled labor, 
and its gain by immigration conquered the South. In 
the production of wealth, wage-labor was cheaper 
than slave labor, because it was less wasteful and more 
efficient. The factory system produced varied indus- 
tries where skill could operate in every form of labor. 
The South had one great industry — agriculture — 
which was carried on by ignorant slave-labor, and, 
hence, expensive. 

Liberty vs. Interests. 

4. Each group appealed to the principles of liberty 
and justice. Speeches, newspaper articles, books, reso- 
lutions by assemblies, and laws, registered the senti- 
ments and arguments for each section. A vast mass 
of printed material appeared for each side, and this 
was transmuted into the inmost thoughts of men. 

This continually increasing mass of arguments, and 
laws, led each group to regard the conflict as one of 
ideas, rather than as one of opposing economic inter- 
ests. When passionate oratory and inflammatory arti- 
cles always held up the principles of liberty as the 
main cause of contention, it was natural that men 
should fail to see the vital, material interests back of 
the whole movement. Since men believed the conflict 



INTERPRETATION OF CURRENT EVENTS. IJ 

was one of ideas, the result was, consequently, recrimi- 
nation and increasing bitterness, and finally civil war. 
Each section accused the other of injustice and tyranny. 
Leaders arose who were honored by one section and 
held up to execration by the other. In this view, events 
themselves became distorted and magnified. Men 
measured an economic force, not by an analysis of the 
force itself, but by what was said of it. 

Past Economic Groups. 

History is full of examples of opposing economic 
interests. The splendor of the Athenian empire was 
derived from subsidies forced from the subject states. 
The Roman patricians held the plebeians in economic 
slavery, and the empire itself was one vast spoliation 
of labor. For a thousand years the lord oppressed 
the vassal. Previous to the outbreak of the French 
Revolution in 1789, more than 20,000,000 peasants 
were in abject economic slavery and degradation as 
the result of exploitation by the upper classes. For 
centuries, the English landlords have ruthlessly 
despoiled the Irish people of the products of their 
labor. Gladstone made eloquent appeals that justice 
might be done to. the subject race; but the stronger 
economic group would not exchange real advantage 
for sentiment. The American Revolution, preceded 
by restrictions on trade and manufactures, and by di- 
rect taxation, was the result of economic oppression. 
Economic groups have always contended for mastery. 

Present Economic Groups. 

These groups are found at the present time in every 
country. A powerful aristocracy in Russia exploits 



128 FREEDOM VS. SLAVERY. 

the peasantry. England furnishes a stable government 
for India, but, at the same time, drains India's re- 
sources. 

The Dutch exploit a subject race in the East Indies, 
and the king of Belgium impoverishes and degrades 
still more a barbarous people in the interior of Africa, 

Two Groups in the United States. 

There are two economic groups in the United States. 
The upper class includes the great "captains of indus- 
try" and the public service corporations. The ex- 
ploited class is made up of all the vast laboring popu- 
lation and most of the middle class. While the limits 
of each are not well defined, the two groups are sepa- 
rate, distinct, and have opposing interests. 

Present Exploitation. 

The conflict between these two opposing groups is 
irrepressible. It is a conflict of economic interests, 
rather than of ideas. The upper class exploits the 
lower, and the exploited group struggles for economic 
freedom. Wage-labor is fast becoming economic slave 
labor. The stronger levies upon the weaker a system 
of indirect taxation. They smite the resources of la- 
bor, "and abundant streams of revenue pour forth." 
President Roosevelt had the interests of the lower 
group in mind when he said : "We must learn in the 
future to shackle cunning, as in the past we have 
learned to shackle force." 

Weapons of the Conflict. 

One group resorts to lockouts, limits production, 
and often uses government to advance its interests. 



INTERPRETATION OF CURRENT EVENTS. 129 

It has admirable organization, with trained leader- 
ship, and is in the possession of the means of pro- 
duction. The exploited classes have the weapon of the 
strike, and demand an increasing share of economic 
goods. They make up in numbers what they lack in 
organization and leadership; and by the ballot they 
can use the government to protect their interests. 

Key to Current Events. 

Class or group struggles produce current historic 
events. Each group is intent on its own interest and 
is in conflict with some other. The totality of these 
group relations produces history. Each class strug- 
gles to exploit some other or to be free from- exploita- 
tion. In this irrepressible conflict the stronger will 
win and strength will lie in numbers, organization, 
and leadership. Ideas will have force in unifying a 
class, rather than in moving another to sacrifice its 
interests. The economic basis gives the true propor- 
tion and interpretation to current events, and results 
in truer judgments of the motives of men. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Abolitionists IS, i6, I7, 30, 45-50 

Abolition Laws I7» i8 

Adams, John 20 

Adams, Samuel 20 

Adams, John Q 35, 45, 120 

Adams, Charles F 1 16 

Alabama Letter by Clay 52 

Alien and Sedition Laws 2>1 

Anderson, Major 106 

Appomattox Court House 121 

Argall, Governor 6 

Arkwright 62 

Armies 109, no 

Assiento 8 

Assassination of Lincoln 122 

Atherton Gag Rule 45 

Austin, James T 48 

B. 

Badger 78 

Balance of Power • 26 

Barbadoes 6 

Barnburners 56, 57 

Battles of the Civil War no 

Bell 63 

Bell, John 96, 97 

Benton, Thomas H 58 

Birney, James G 49> So 

Blennerhasset 39 

Blockade 113-115 

Blockade Runners 115-118 

Booth, John Wilkes 122 

Border Warfare in Kansas 30, 78-80 

130 



INDEX. 



131 



Bovay, A. E 82 

Breckenridge, John C 95, 97 

Bright, John 119 

Brooks, Preston 85, 86 

Brown, John 79, 92-94 

Bryant, William Cullen 97 

Buchanan, James 80, 85, 88, loi, 106 

Bunch 117 

Burr, Aaron 39 

Butler, Pierce 21 

Butler, Senator 85 

C. 

Calhoun, John C 32, 41, 43, 44, 52, 58, 60 

California 60, 61 

Campaign of 1840 49 

Campaign of 1844 50, 52, S3 

Campaign of 1848 56, 57 

Campaign of 1852 75, 76 

Campaign of 1856 84, 85 

Campaign of i860 • • 30, 94-97 

Capture of Mason and Slidell 117 

Cartwright 63 

Cass, Lewis 56, 57 

Chandler, Zachariahi 82, 84 

Channing, W. E 48 

Chase, Sal non P 58, 74, 83, 91, 95, 96 

Clay, Henry 32, 34, 36, 39, 43, 52, 58-60, 83 

Coffin, Levi 75 

Colfax, Schuyler 91 

Cobb 32 

Compromise of 1850 . .' .30. 60 

Confederate States of America 100, 104 

Conflict, The Irrepressible 27, 29, 30 

Conflict, The Period of No 14, 25, 26 

Constitution of the United States 20-24 

Constitutions of the States 18 

Convention of 1787 20-24 

Constitutional Union Party 96 

Cook 34 

Cost of the War no 

Cotton Belt, The 63-64 

Cotton Growing ^. 64-65 



132 INDEX. 

Cotton Picking 6S 

Cotton Is King 62 

"Crisis, The" 40 

Cuba 30, 80 

Curtis, George W 97 

Cutler 19 

D. 

Davis, Garret • • S3 

Davis, Jefferson 58» 120 

Debate, Between Lincoln and Douglas 30. 88-92 

Decision at the South in 1861 loi 

Declaration of Independence I7. 27 

Democratic Party So 

De Silva 8 

District of Columbia 60, 61, 62 

Disunion in New England 38-40 

Disunion in the Mississippi Valley 38, 39 

Division at the North in 1861 lOl 

Dixon, Senator 11 

Douglass, Frederick 74 

Douglas, Stephen A.. .30, 58, 70, 76, 11, 78, 80, 88, 89, 90, 91, 95 
Dred Scott Case 3o, 86-88 

E. 

Economic Groups....;, 13, 17, 27-30, 31. 32, 104, 105, 109, 125-129 

Elfrith, Capt. Daniel .....5, 6 

Emancipation 110-113 

Emerson, R. W 49 

Emigrant Aid Societies 79 

England li5-"9 

Evarts, William M 95 

Expansion Westward 28, 30 

F. 

Factory System - 29, 62, 63, I19 

Faneuil Hall 48, 7i 

Federalist Party 33 

Five Roads Leading to the West 28 

Flushing, the Man-of-War 6 

Force Bill 43 

Ford's Theater "2 

Franklin, Benjamin .». 16, 17, 20, 81 



INDEX. 133 

Free Land, Influence of 28 

Fremont, John C 84 

Free Soil Party 56, 57, 76 

Fugitive Slave Laws 21, 22 

Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 61, 62, 70-73 

G. 

Garrison, William Lloyd 45-47 

"Genius of Universal Emancipation" 45 

Giddings, Joshua 74, 84 

Gladstone, William E 1 18 

Glover , 72 

Grand Review in 1865 123 

Grant, U. S 120, 121, 123 

Grayson, William 20 

Greeley, Horace 82, 83, 84, 91, 95, m 

Grier, Judge 72 

H. 

Hamilton, Alexander 20, 26, 39 

Hamlet, James 70 

Hammond 64 

Harper's Ferry .93, 94 

Hartford Convention 39, 40 

Hawkins, John 7, 8 

Hayes, Rutherford B 74 

Hayne, Robert 40, 41, 43 

Henry, Patrick 16, 17, 20 

Holmes, O. W 97 

Hopkins, Rev. Samuel 16 

Houston, Sam 51, 58 

Howard, Jacob M 82 

Hunkers, The 56 

L 

Independence Hall 20, 99, 123 

Inauguration of Lincoln 102, 103 

J. 

Jackson, Andrew 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 52 

Jamestown 6 

Jay, John 16 

Jefferson, Thomas 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 32, 33, 37, 38, 39 



134 INDEX. 

Jerry, The Rescue = 7i 

Johnson, Andrew 123 

"Jonas, The" 7 

K. 

Kansas-Nebraska Law 30, 76-80, 81 

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions 37, 38 

Kidnaping 21, 22 

King, Rufus 20, 35 

L, 

Land-killing ,: 64 

Lawless, Judge 47 

Lecompton Constitution 79 

Lee, Richard Henry 16, 17 

Lee, Robert E. 120, 121 

"Liberator, The" 45-47 

Liberty Party 49, 5° 

Lincoln, Abraham 27, 30, 69, 87, 

88, 89, 90, 95, 96, 97, 101-103, 107, 111-113, 117, 118, 121, 122 

Longfellow, H. W 91 

Loss of Life in the Civil War no 

Lovejoy, Elijah P 27, 47, 48 

Lovejoy, Owen 84 

Lowell, James R 49, 97 

Lumkin 120 

Lundy, Benjamin 45 

Lyons, Lord ....» 116, 117 

Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer 116 

M. 

Macaulay, Thomas B 54 

Madison, James 16, 17, 20, 32, 37 

Main Lines of the Underground Railroad 73 

Mason, George 16 

Mason, James M 80, 117 

"Mayflower, The" = S, 6, 7 

McHenry, Jerry 71 

Mexico 53-55 

Mexican Cession 30, 55 

Middle Passage 10 

Missouri Compromise 27, 29, 30-36, 87, 100 

Monroe, Fort 106 

Morton, Governor 102 



INDEX. 13s 

N. 

Nav>', The 113-118 

Negro Quarters 12, 13, 67 

New Mexico 60 

Nicholas, George zi 

Nicholas, William n 

North and South Contrasted 13, 3i> 104, 105, 109 

Northwest Territory 18, 19 

Nullification 29, 37-43 

O. 

Objects of the Civil War 110-113 

Ohio Company 19 

Opening of the Civil War 107 

Opinion of the Fathers 16 

Ordinance of 1787 18, 20 

Ostend Manifesto 30, 80, 81 

Overseer of Slaves 68, 69 

P. 

Parker, Theodore 74 

Parsons, Samuel I9 

Peace Congress 100 

Personal Liberty Laws 12, 

Petitions to Congress 45 

Philip, King of Spain . ., 8 

Phillips, Wendell 27, 48, 71 

Pickering, Timothy • • 38 

Picking Cotton 65 

Pierce, Franklin 88 

Pinckney, Charles 22 

Pinckney, William 35 

Plantation Life 65-68 

Planter, The 65, 66 

Planter's Home i3. 65 

Plot to Annex Texas 5i» 52 

Plymouth 6, 7 

Political Excitement in 1849 57 

Polk, James K 53, 54 

Powell, Capt. John 6 

Puritans, The • 5 

Putnam, Rufus ^9 



136 INDEX. 

Q. 

Quakers, The 15, 17, 22 

Quincy, Josiah . . . • 21 

R. 

Racine, Wis y2 

Randolph, Edmund 16 

Randolph, John 40 

Representation of Slaves '23, 24 

Republican Party 30, 81-85, 95-97 

Review, The Grand, 1865 123 

Richmond, Va 120, 121 

Ripon, Wis 82 

Royal African Company 8, 9 

Ruggles o 34 

Russell, Lord John 1 16, 1 17 

Rutledge , 22 

S. 

Savoy, Duke of 5 

Scott, General 103 

Scott of Missouri 32 

Secession .97-100, 106 

Seward, William H 58, 71, 77, 84, 95, 96, 118 

Sheridan, General , 1 19, 121 

Sherman, General 119, 123 

Simms Case 71 

Slavery — 

Introduced 6 

African Trade 9, 10, 17, 22, 23, 70 

Domestic Trade 60, 61, 62, 69, 70 

Slave Drivers 68 

Condition of Slaves 12, 13, 66-70 

Distribution of Slaves 1 1 

Slave Laws 11, 12, 21 

Slaves as Servants 66, 67 

Slaves as Field Hands 67 

Slidell, John 81, 117 

Smith, Gerrit • • ys 

South, The, in 1865 119, 120 

South and North Contrasted 13, 31, 104, 105, 109 

South Carolina 98, 99 

Soule, Pierre 58,80, 81 



INDEX. 137 

Star of the West 106 

Statuary Hall 34 

Stevens, Thaddeus 74 

Stowe, Harriet Beecher 75 

Sumner, Charles •• ...85, 86, 122 

Sumter, Fort 106, 107 

T. 

Tallmadge 32, 33 

Taney, Roger B 88 

Tariff of Abominations 40 

Taylor, Zachary 56, 57 

Texas 30, 50-56, 60 

Thomas, Jesse B 36 

Travis, Joseph 43 

Toombs, Robert 57 

Treasurer, The 5. 6, 7 

Trent, The ii7 

Tribune, The o , 82 

Tapper, Benjamin 19 

TurnbuU, Robert 40 

Turner, Nat 43. 44 

Two Voyages 5 

Tyler, John , -34, 46, 52 

U. 

Uncle Tom's Cabin 75. 81 

Underground Railroad 73, 74 

Union Party ••... 96 

Utah 60 

V. 

Van Buren, Martin 52, 56 

Vision of the War 107-109 

Voices of Freedom ^5 

W. 

Wade, Ben 78 

Washington, George 16, 17, 20 

Watt 62 

Webster, Daniel 29, 33, 40, 52, 56, 58, 59. 83 

Webster-Hayne Debate 40, 41 



138 INDEX. 

Whitney, Eli 63 

Whittier, John G 49, 97 

Wilkes, Capt II7 

Wilkesbarre, Pa 72 

Wilkinson, General 39 

Wilmot, David 55, 84 

Wilmot Proviso 55, 56, 57 



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